
Class _i.^__^_A,^_/ 
GpiglrtlS?' 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSm 



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Svcrq-Bati Mlh in India. 



ILLUSTRATED FROM ORIGINAL PHOTOGRAPHS. 



BY/ 



REY. A. D. ROWE. M. A., 

AUTHOR OF "TALKS ABOUT INDIA," AND "TALKS ABOUT MISSION 
WORK IN INDIA." 




.1%. 






AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY, 

150 NASSAU STREET, NEW YORK. 



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COPYRIGHT, x88i, 
BY AMERICAN TRACT SOCIETY. 



Contents. 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE 7 

INTRODUCTION 9 

L THE PEOPLE 11 

IL GENERAL APPEARANCE AND HOME LIFE- 25 

m. RELIGION OF THE HINDUS 32 

IV. CASTE: A SACRED INSTITUTION 41 

V. CASTE— IN ACTUAL LIFE 52 

VL EDUCATION 64 

VIL SCHOOLS AND PUPILS 74 

VIIL THE OLD STYLE HINDU SCHOOL 82 

IX. WOMEN 89 

X. MARRIAGE - 97 

XL CHILD-LIFE 109 

XIL MEDICINE AND THE SICK 118 

XIIL BEGGARS AND CHARITY 124 

XIV. MERCHANTS AND MONEY-LENDERS 130 

XV. AUSPICIOUS DAYS AND OMENS 138 

XVL THE POOR 143 

XVH. THE INDIAN VILLAGE 149 

XVm. HINDU FESTIVALS 159 

XIX. AMUSEMENTS 179 



6 CONTENTS, 

XX. NIGHT LIFE 185 

XXI. TRAVELLING 192 

XXn. SERVANTS 202 

XXin. THE DEAD 213 

XXIV. NATURAL PRODUCTIONS 222 

XXV. TREES 227 

> XXVL FARMERS 237 

XXVn. FARMING 244 

XXVIII. INDIGO 254 

XXIX. OTHER INDUSTRIES 266 

XXX. ANGLO-INDIANS - 279 

XXXL EURASIANS - 301 

XXXn. THE GOVERNMENT 303 

XXXIIL D. P. W. - 308 

XXXIV. MODERN PUBLIC IMPROVEMENTS 314 

XXXV. THE TRAVELLED HINDU 322 

XXXVL ON A COAST STEAMER 332 

XXXVn. THE FAMINE OF 1877-78 339 

XXXVin. MISSIONARY EFFORT 35° 

XXXIX. THE PROSPECT 363 

XL. CASTE AND CONVERTS 369 

XLL BIBLE SCENES IN INDIA --- 377 

( I. Routes to India, Outfits, etc. 395 
APPENDIX \ 

(2. Glossary 401 



ILLUSTRATIONS. 

COMMON HIND U TEMPLE ■«• frontispiece 

VILLA GERS IN ORDINAR Y DRESS page 27 

EDUCATED BRAHMANS- 43 

HIGH-CASTE SCHOOL-BO YS 67 

AN OLD STYLE SCHOOL Z^ 

ZENANA TEACHING 91 

CHRISTIAN BRIDE AND GROOM 103 

BRAHMAN SCHOOL-GIRL 113 

HIGH-CASTE WOMAN 113 

MERCHANTS IN THEIR STALL 133 

HINDU VILLAGE 151 

PILGRIMS TO THE GANGES 161 

FAKIRS 169 

RIDING IN A PALENKEEN 193 

BULLOCK COACH - 199 

BULLOCK BANDY' 199 

TOWER OF SILENCE - 217 

THE BANYAN-TREE 229 

PLOUGHING 245 

MILKING 245 

WEAVING 267 

SPINNING 267 

CARPENTERS 273 

GOLDSMITHS --. 273 

AN ANGLO-INDIAN HOME 285 

HAWKERS 297 

MISSIONARY TENT-LIFE 351 

PARIAH SCHOOL-MISTRESS 373 

NATIVE CATECHIST 373 

WOMEN AT THE WELL 389 



INTRODUCTION. 



There is an India of the books and there is a real India, 
and so different are the two that the student of the one would 
scarcely recognize the other, if without a guide he should 
suddenly find himself in a Hindu village. Many of the pop- 
ular books on India have been written by European travellers, 
who necessarily had to confine their observations to the cities 
and larger towns, where they saw but little of real, undis- 
guised Hindu life. A European traveller in India is in the 
greatest danger of getting false impressions. A Hindu is 
never himself in the presence of a foreigner. He is shy, 
secretive, and an adept at doing and saying what he thinks 
will please you. Along the routes of travel, moreover, Hindu 
life has become somewhat Europeanized and has lost much 
of its native simplicity. 

The traveller's ignorance of the language of the people is 
also against him. " May he not have an interpreter ?" Cer- 
tainly, but the Hindu who has learned sufficient English to 
be an interpreter has also been in the company of Europeans 
or of Europeanized natives sufficiently to learn their likes and 
dislikes. He will skilfully conceal what he thinks might dis- 
please or annoy you, and put special emphasis on what he 
knows will interest you. Unfortunately, it is the general im- 
pression that what is most distinctively native is most unin- 
teresting to a European and ought to be concealed from him. 
Whatever may be the cause, we make no groundless asser- 
tion when we say, that many of the books on India seem to 
have been made with the aim of astonishing rather than of 
instructing the reader, and they leave on the mind the im- 
pression that India is a country where women are caged up 
like parrots, where widows are burned alive, and children are 
hung up in baskets to be eaten by birds, or thrown into the 
Ganges to be eaten by crocodiles ; that it is inhabited chiefly 
by voluptuous native princes, self-torturing religious devotees, 



10 INTRODUCTION, 

pow-wowing Brahman priests, jewel-bedecked dancing girls, 
and ferocious Bengal tigers. Of the millions of sober-minded, 
toiling, fellow human beings with hopes and fears, joys and 
sorrows, sympathies and ambitions like ourselves and in 
common with the rest of mankind, we are told but little. 

The school children of America know more about the 
burning of widows and the drowning of infants in India, about 
Thuggism and the bloody goddess Kali, than do the fathers 
of an ordinary Hindu village ; and the extraordinary accounts 
contained in many books on India are as surprising to the 
young Hindu as they are to the young American. 

We do not say that these accounts are literally untrue, but 
we claim that the average English book on India gives the 
reader an unsymmetrical impression of the country as a whole, 
by putting too much stress upon characters and topics which 
are of comparatively little consequence in the general make- 
up of the life of the masses. Such subjects as historical and 
theoretical Hinduism, the origin of caste, Brahmanism, Devil- 
worship, Thuggism and Sutteeism, which usually take up a 
large part of European books on India, have but a small 
share in the daily life of the people, and their discussion is 
purposely omitted in the present book. Any standard 
cyclopedia will give the reader full and trustworthy informa- 
tion on these topics. 

The usual chapters on the location, size, and natural 
features of the country are likewise omitted, and for them the 
reader is referred to his " Common School Geography." The 
writer has also departed from the custom of closing every 
chapter with a " moral," for which omission he hopes those 
of his readers who are able to draw conclusions for them- 
selves will kindly excuse him. The reader will also please 
bear in mind that it has not been so much the writer's inten- 
tion to describe in detail the country, its people, and their 
customs, as it has been to give the reader such impressions of 
life in India as he would probably himself receive by familiar 
and friendly intercourse among all classes. 



Every-Day Life in India. 



I. THE PEOPLE. 

What shall we call them ? If we say " Hindus," the 
statisticians will tell us that one-fourth of them are not 
Hindus but Mohammedans, while the historians will 
add that the low-caste people are not Hindus proper. 

If we say " East-Indians," we shall be understood 
to mean a small and special class — the descendants of 
mixed parentage. 

If we say *' Indians," the name is common to the 
red man of North America and to the natives of the 
West Indies. 

We have, therefore, before us the alternative of 
using the awkward expression " the people of India," 
or of adopting one of the other terms as a general 
name. We prefer the latter and shall use the word 
"Hindus" as an equivalent to "the natives of India," 
including Mohammedans and Pariahs as well as Brah- 
mans and Sudras. In rpatters of religion or other 
distinctions worthy of notice, we shall make the neces- 
sary exceptions. 

2 



12 EVERY-DA Y LIFE IN INDIA. 

THEIR CHARACTER. 

The most diverse estimates of the character of the 
Hindus have found their way into print. 

Abul Fazl, the great Akbar's minister, said of them : 
" They are rehgious, affable, courteous to strangers, 
prone to inflict austerities on- themselves, lovers of 
justice, given to retirement, able in business, grateful, 
admirers of truth, and of unbounded fidelity. Their 
character shines brightest in adversity. Their soldiers 
know not what it is to flee from the field of battle. 
They have great respect for their tutors ; and make no 
account of their lives when they can devote them to 
the service of their God. They believe in the unity 
of the Godhead, and although they hold images in high 
veneration they are by no means idolaters, as the igno- 
rant suppose." 

The English historian. Mill, says that the higher 
castes in India are generally depraved and capable of 
every fraud and villany; that they more than despise 
their inferiors, whom they kill with less scruple than we 
do a fowl ; that the lower castes, are profligate, guilty 
on the slightest occasion of the greatest crimes, and 
degraded infinitely below the brutes; that the Hindus 
in general are devoid of every moral and religious 
principle ; cunning and deceitful ; addicted to adulation, 
dissimulation, deception, dishonesty, falsehood, and 
perjury; disposed to hatred, revenge and cruelty; 
indulging in furious and malignant passions fostered 
by the gloomy and malignant principles of their reli- 
gion ; perpetrating \'illany with cool " reflection ; in- 



. . THE PEOPLE. 13 

dolent to the point of thinking death and extinction 
the happiest of all states ; avaricious, litigious, insensible 
to the sufferings of others, inhospitable, cowardly ; con- 
temptuous and harsh to their women, whom they treat 
as slaves ; eminently devoid of filial, parental, and con- 
jugal affection. 

Alas for the bewilderment of the poor reader who 
should encounter these two historians in succession, or 
for the impression of the still more unfortunate one 
who should form his estimate of Hindu character from 
either of them alone. 

Both statements are far too strong, and the truth 
probably lies near a mean between the two. 

Possibly a company of respectable, devout Hindus 
might be collected in any part of India who would 
answer the favorable description of Abul Fazl. So 
likewise might a gang of robbers, scoundrels and lewd 
fellows be easily collected who would be true to Mr. 
Mill's picture of Hindu character ; but neither of these 
could properly be called "the Hindus." 

On account of the vast differences which exist be- 
tween the extremes of society, it is very difficult to 
speak of the people of India in general terms, and who- 
ever does so must admit that the exceptions endanger 
the rule. Those foreigners who have seen most of 
India, who have lived in the closest connection and 
sympathy with the people, are the last to speak in 
strong and general terms of the Hindus as a whole. 
The writer who finds it comparatively easy to say this 
or that is so in regard to Americans, Englishmen or 



14 E VER Y'DA Y LIFE IN INDIA. 

Frenchmen, will find himself confused with the endless 
variety of character which he meets in India. 

Of distinct races and tribes, languages and dialects, 
religions and castes, there seems to be no end. In the 
same village live those whose habits and sympathies 
are as distinct and as different as those of the inhabi- 
tants of different hemispheres. We give, therefore, a 
friendly caution to the reader, not to be in haste to 
draw conclusions beyond what is written. If we tell 
you that we saw a basket-maker or a village watchman 
preparing a dish of rats, or a crow-stew, do not fly to 
the conclusion that " the Hindus " are fond of crows 
and devour rats like the Chinese. 

If we tell you that a Brahman never eats a meal 
without attending with great care to his religious cere- 
monies, do not infer that a Pariah concerns himself 
equally much about religious observances, or that he 
ever thinks of praying except once a year when his 
village is threatened with cholera or smallpox. 

It is exceedingly difficult for us to form a proper 
estimate of the moral character of the Hindus, just as 
it is well-nigh impossible for them to form a correct 
estimate of the moral character of Europeans. We 
find in them such a strange combination of qualities — • 
moral and otherwise — that we are quite bewildered in 
coming to a conclusion ; our tendency probably being 
to let what we consider bad overshadow what is really 
good. 

When we find, as we frequently do here, gentleness, 
docility, industry, faithfulness in service, and politeness 



THE PEOPLE. 15 

to superiors, combined with lying, flattery, jealousy, 
ingratitude and avarice in the same individual, we are 
at a loss to give an opinion as to his moral character. 
As lying is abominable and ingratitude contemptible in 
our eyes, we are content to let the gentleness, docil- 
ity, industry, faithfulness, and politeness, go for naught 
as we vote our subject a lying, sneaking, ungrateful 
wretch. 

Perhaps the best we can do by way ol indicating 
Hindu character, is to point out such peculiarities as 
prominently attract the notice ol a foreigner. There 
are some special traits of character which continually 
impress themselves upon us in our intercourse with the 
people of India, and we make no rash assertion when 
we say, that many Europeans spend the greater part of 
their life here without getting beyond these special and 
sometimes incongruous peculiarities, in their study of 
Hindu character. 

THE HINDUS ARE RESPECTFUL TO FOREIGNERS, 
AND TO THEIR SUPERIORS AMONG THEIR OWN 
COUNTRYMEN. 

To new-comers this is very noticeable. To the 
European who has long lived in the country it becomes 
a commonplace matter of lact. He receives the outer 
marks of respect from natives with the same equanimity 
as he does the light and heat of the sun, and with as 
little appreciation. It is only when they are denied 
him that he takes any notice of them. Then he flies- 
into a rage and feels himself deeply insulted. What- 
ever else this state of things may prove or indicate, it at 



1 6 £ VER Y-DA V LIFE IN INDIA. 

least shows that the natives of India, as a rule, are re- 
spectful to Europeans. 

Those among them of lower caste or position seldom 
show that pride of " equality " which is so common in 
western lands. The idea of all men being created equal 
is altogether foreign to India. It is directly opposed 
to all their religious precepts and social usages. This, 
no doubt, has something to do with the profound 
respect which superiors either by birth or by position 
receive from those less favored. 

THEY ARE PATIENT AND EVEN-TEMPERED. 
The patience ot the Hindu has reached a world- 
wide fame, and his mildness has become a proverb. 
His detractors call his patience a compound of apathy 
and laziness, but to this mode of reasoning we object. 
If a diagnosis of a man's anger or of his lying propen- 
sity does not excuse him for the fault, neither must an 
analysis of his good qualities rob him of their virtue. 
We say the Hindu is patient — a hundred times more 
patient than the European. Patient under delays, 
under disappointments, and under the most irritating 
provocations and annoyances. For his patience he 
receives the daily reward which this virtue brings, and 
from his impatient, nervous, strong-tempered European 
judges, he deserves an unbiased and favorable verdict 
on this point. 

THEY ARE PEACEABLY DISPOSED. 
Barring the verbal warfare in which Hindus gener- 
ally delight, they are exceedingly peaceful. Of such a 



THE PEOPLE, 17 

thing as a fist fight among Hindus we have never 
heard. 

Even among street boys quarrels ending in blows 
are very rare, and that the nation as a whole is the very 
reverse of warlike, history clearly attests. 

The Hindu has a profound respect for authority. 
He apparently loves to be governed, and is as proud of 
the dignity of his rulers as the rulers can well be them- 
selves. Though he may not have any well-defined 
doctrine about the divine right of kings, he shows no 
more uneasiness even under his foreign rulers that il 
they had been placed over him by express command of 
his gods. 

The peaceful disposition of the Hindus is clearly 
brought to light by contrast with the warlike spirit of 
their northern neighbors, the Afghans, as the British 
have lately had occasion to learn, not altogether to their 
satisfaction. 

THEY ARE TEMPERATE AND SIMPLE IN THEIR 
HABITS. 

Although the use of intoxicating liquors is somewhat 
prevalent among the lower castes, drunkenness is by no 
means as common in India as it is in Europe and 
America. The high caste Hindus and the Mohamme- 
dans have strong religious objections to the use of 
intoxicating drinks, and one of the saddest features of 
European influence in India is the increase of drunk- 
enness. 

One cannot but admire the simple habits of the 
Hindus. Their houses, their clothing, their food, are 



1 8 E VER Y-DA Y LIFE IN INDIA . 

all of the plainest, simplest kind. While we could wish 
to see them bestow more care upon their houses for the 
sake of having pleasanter homes, we deprecate any 
" civilization" which will create luxurious wants of food 
and dress. 

Notwithstanding, 

" The civilized, the most polite, 
Is that which bears the praise of nations 
For dressing eggs two hundred fashions ; 
Whereas at savage nations look. 
The less refined, the less they cook," 

it Is an open question whether the knowledge of dress- 
ing eggs in two hundred fashions, and having a special 
taste for each, is a gain or a loss. 

We have often envied the Hindu his undisturbed 
satisfaction with his simple "rice and curry" from 
January to December ; and have we not times without 
number heard European ladies exclaim, with a sigli, 
" Oh, that we could dress like these Hindu women, 
always the same, yet ever so graceful, and be spared 
the endless vexation of latest styles and changing 
fashions." 

If any one can prove to our satisfaction, or to the 
satisfaction of a bench of unbiased judges, that a dozen 
courses at dinner and for-ever-changing styles of dress 
are a blessing, either to Individuals or to nations, we 
shall confess that Hindus deserve our pity for their 
simple tastes and meagre wants; but until then we 
shall remain of the opinion that their condition in this 
respect is a most desirable one, and one which we shall 



THE PEOPLE. 19 

do well to encourage rather than to despise among 
ourselves. On the other hand, there are some traits of 
character which readily attract the attention of the new- 
comer, but which impress him less favorably. Promi- 
nent among these are the following. 

WANT OF TRUTHFULNESS. 

Truth, whether in the abstract or in the concrete, is 
far less honored in the Orient than in western countries. 
To a European, truth and right are the highest stan- 
dards. From these there is no appeal. To the Hindu 
and to the people of the East generally, custom and ex- 
pediency are of more importance than truth and right. 
This is a strong charge to bring against a great portion 
of the human family, but we think the facts in the case 
warrant our conclusion. 

The evil effects of such a state of popular thought 
and feeling can scarcely be over-estimated. It blocks 
the way to national progress, and makes the path of 
individual integrity a very hard one. The Hindu 
religion, which sanctions falsehood under certain cir- 
cumstances, is to blame in no small degree for the low 
standard which truth occupies in India to-day. 

The lying, deceiving, intriguing gods of the Hindu 
pantheon have had a large share in the banishment 
from the country of that high and sacred regard for the 
truth which we find in Christian lands. 

It would be uncharitable and probably untrue to 
say, as some writers have done, that "all Hindus are 
liars ;" but this is certain, that the European resident in 

3 



20 E VER Y-DA Y LIFE IN INDIA, 

India finds lying so common among all castes and 
classes, that he soon gives but little weight to the word 
of any native whose personal interests might tempt him 
to depart from the truth. It is equally certain that 
natives among themselves trust one another as little or 
even less, when their personal interests and the truth 
are at variance. This is a dark stain on the Hindu 
character and one which repels Europeans. Whatever 
other derogatory opinions Hindus may have of Euro- 
peans, they are well aware that we stand by our word 
and abhor a lie. A European's word is as good as a 
hundred promissory notes by a native, among natives 
themselves. 

" You said so," " You promised it, sir," Is a kind of 
due-bill which but few Europeans can evade, and the 
Hindus know it. 

SELFISHNESS. 

However much we may lament the selfishness prev- 
alent in Christian countries, we can form no idea of 
what utter and unmitigated selfishness means until we 
see it as it prevails in India and other non-Christian 
lands. Selfishness has extinguished every spark of 
uninterested philanthropy, of zeal for the public good, 
and even of patriotism, in India. The Hindu has a 
directly selfish aim in every act of charity, and in his 
very offerings to the gods. The caste system has en- 
couraged and fostered exclusiveness in small circles and 
selfishness in individuals, until the social atmosphere 
stands at a freezing temperature. The rule among all 



THE PEOPLE, 21 

classes seems to be, " Look out for yourself, but never 
do to others that for which you are not likely to be 
repaid." One who is well, offering to do the work of a 
neighbor who is sick ; one man lending a helping hand 
to another simply as a matter of accommodation ; one 
traveller helping to carry the burden of a fellow-trav- 
eller — such acts of kindness are almost unknown in 
India. It does not seem to strike the ordinary Hindu 
as belonging even to the proprieties of life to help one 
another. In case of a fire breaking out in a village, it 
is only when the flames actually reach his own house 
that a man feels called upon to put it out. During a 
late conflagration in the city of Poona, the policemen 
and other ofiicials begged of the bystanders to help in 
arresting the spread of the flames ; but instead of a 
hearty response with buckets of water, they coolly 
replied, " Why should we ? these are not our build- 
ings." 

In all the departments of life and among all classes, 
this heartless, chilling selfishness prevails to an extent 
utterly unappreciable by an American Christian who 
has not seen it. Whatever the Christian religion may 
have done or may have left undone in the character of 
Americans, it has at least made them, as a nation and 
as individuals, more unselfish than Hinduism has made 
its followers. 

Having no such disposition themselves, it seems a 
thing incredible to the Hindus that Europeans should 
voluntarily give of their hard-earned savings for such 
charities as the spread of the gospel and famine relief in 



22 E VER Y-DA Y LIFE IN INDIA, 

distant countries. Notwithstanding his inability to give 
a satisfactory explanation, the average Hindu even to 
this day believes that missionaries and their supporters 
have some hidden, selfish motive in their efforts for the 
spread of Christianity. 

THE LOVE OF MONEY, 
is inordinately strong in Hindus. Of all the gods of 
India, the rupee has the most numerous and the most 
devoted worshippers. Rupees, annas, and pice, it is 
safe to say, form the subject of three-fourths of all the 
talk of India. A controversy over a single pice (one- 
fourth of a cent) is enough to throw a dozen people into 
a quarrel and to keep them wrangling for half a night. 
For the sake of heaping up rupees a rich man will live 
in a dreary, windowless mud-hut all his days, and make 
his life and that of his family as rayless as is his dingy 
house. The Hindus' strong love of money seems the 
more unreasonable because they prize the money itself 
rather than any rational enjoyment which it might 
bring them. There is some fitness of things in a man's 
seeking wealth in order that he may beautify his home, 
cultivate his mind, educate his children, and make him- 
self a more useful citizen ; but when the love of money 
ends in itself, it is a base passion which consumes the 
better nature of the owner, while it brings no good to 
the community. While we do not wish to intimate that 
all the misers of the world are confined to India, we do 
believe that this country has a more than just propor- 
tion of souls whose highest ambition never rises above 



THE PEOPLE. 23 

the current coin of the bazaar. So prominent is the 
greed for gain, and so readily and so frequently are 
truth, honesty, and uprightness bartered for silver, that 
we cannot be wrong in classing an inordinate love for 
money among the unenviable qualities of the Hindus. 

WANT OF FRANKNESS. 

There is about Hindus a want of frankness which 
acts as an almost insurmountable social barrier between 
them and Europeans. A native gentleman may be 
your intimate acquaintance; he may visit you week 
after week and sit by you for hours ; he may converse 
with you about all conceivable subjects, and reveal to 
you his joys and sorrows, hopes and fears ; he may 
bring you presents and receive favors in return, flatter 
you to your face and extol your virtues in the presence 
of your friends ; yet you can never be quite sure that 
he is truly and thoroughly your friend, and that he 
would stand by you in adversity, or when such a course 
would interfere with his own interests. 

Whether frankness, free, open-heartedness, has been 
to some extent denied the Hindus by nature, we are 
not prepared to say ; but this we know, that whatever 
degree of frankness the children in India have, in com- 
mon with youths in other parts of the world, is oblit- 
erated by social and religious training before they reach 
the age of manhood. Their religion lays no foundation 
for genuine and sterling friendship. 

We make no attempt to exhaust the list of national 
characteristics, either good or bad. We have men- 



24 E VER Y-DA Y LIFE IN INDIA, 

tloned only a few of the most prominent and such as 
readily attract the attention of every European. 

Just as the foreign resident in India generalizes 
other national peculiarities by detached incidents as 
they come under his observation from time to time, so 
may the reader complete his conception of Hindu 
character by facts and incidents connected with the 
details of daily hfe as scattered throughout the following 
pages. 



APPEARANCE AND HOME-LIFE, 25 



n. GENERAL. APPEARANCE, DRESS, 
AND HOME-LlIFE. 

There is considerable variety in the general ap- 
pearance of the natives of India, not only in different 
sections of the country, but also in the same village. 
A Pariah is seldon mistaken for a Brahman or Sudra, even 
without his dress distinctions ; while about a Mohamme- 
dan there is a stern, defiant look which unmistakably 
indicates his class. Yet on the whole there is a strong 
resemblance among them all, which marks them as 
much more closely allied in origin and descent than 
Brahmanical lore would have us believe. 

In color Hindus are of all shades from a light brown 
to a deep jet. The lower castes are generally darker 
than the higher, but to this there are many exceptions ; 
and we have seen Brahmans as black as charcoal. A 
light color is preferred by all classes, and even among 
Pariahs a " black " bride is not considered so desirable 
as a "red" one. 

The features of the Hindu face are not so very 
different from our own. Especially are the nose and 
mouth of European cast. They have no such marked 
distinguishing characteristic as the high cheek-bone of 
the North American Indian, or the thick lips and curly 
hair of the Negro. They are commonly classified as a 
branch of the Caucasian family, and there is nothing in 
their physiognomy to disprove their right to this rank. 



26 E VER Y'DA Y LIFE IN INDIA, 

THEIR DRESS, 
Especially that of the women, is graceful and becoming. 
This consists of one piece of cloth, from six to nine 
yards long, and a yard and a quarter wide. One end 
is wrapped around the waist, gathered into folds in 
front and secured by tucking in, while the other end 
is thrown across the breast over the shoulder, drawn 
around the waist and secured at the side by tucking 
under. When required, this end may be readily loosed 
and thrown over the head as a covering. This is in 
fact the only headdress ever seen on a Hindu woman. 
Not a stitch of sewing is required in making the dress, 
and not a pin, hook, button or string is required to 
keep it in place. Beautifully inwoven borders make 
up for frills and flounces. A tightly fitting jacket with 
short sleeves and body reaching halfway to the waist 
is now generally worn in connection with the cloth. 

The dress of the men is in two pieces called the 
"upper" and "lower" cloths. The lower cloth is 
about three yards long, is tied about the waist and 
falls over the knees. The upper cloth is about the 
same length and is thrown loosely across the shoulders 
and drawn around the waist. 

Coats are becoming very popular and are fast dis- 
placing the upper cloths. The turban or head cover- 
ing is made by folding a piece of cloth, from seven to 
ten yards long and a yard wide, in a peculiar way so 
as to fit the head and remain in its place. It is very 
becoming and well adapted to protect the head from 
the sun. The "head-cloth" is the article of native 




VILLAGERS IN ORDINARY DRESS. 



APPEARANCE AND HOME-LIFE. 29 

clothing longest retained by those progressive Indian 
youths who indulge in European styles of dress. 

Women, as already said, wear nothing on their 
heads except a fold of the single cloth which constitutes 
their whole dress. 

A few showy and expensive cloths for holidays, 
weddings and other special occasions, are as necessary 
in India as a " best suit " in any other part of the world. 

Sandals and decorated slippers are worn by men; 
but women, however well dressed otherwise, seldom 
wear anything on their feet. Stockings are altogether 
unknown. 

Jewelry is worn by both sexes, but more profusely 
by women. Rings on the fingers and toes, bracelets 
without number on the wrists, bands of gold and silver 
on the arms, rings and pendants in the nose and ears, 
chains about the neck and across the head, and circular 
plates on the hair, are the principal forms of jewelry 
upon which Hindu women set their hearts and which in 
popular language are called their "joys." 

They have yet other ways of adorning themselves ; 
such as washing the face, arms and feet with saffron 
water, which gives them a yellow color, painting the 
outer edge of the eyelids with a solution of oil and 
lampblack, and reddening the tips of the fingers and 
nails with a dye of henna leaves. If there were any 
"disputing about taste" there would be ample room 
for questioning whether some of these operations do 
really add adornment; but as long as Hindu women 
think so, they have as good a right to practise them as 
4 



30 E VERY-DA Y LIFE IN INDIA, 

their fair sisters of the West have to indulge in similar 
fancies. 

HINDU HOME-LIFE. 

In speaking of Hindu home-life we shall have to 
say what it is not rather than what it is, for the Chris- 
tian idea of "home," with all its pleasant and ennobling 
associations, is but little known in India. 

The Hindu's idea of home seems to be a secluded 
place, where the light of the sun, the breezes of heaven, 
and passers-by shall be effectually shut out. If it 
afford him security against thieves, privacy for prepar- 
ing and eating his meals, a dark corner for his siesta, 
and a warm place for sleeping at night, he cares little 
for situation, drainage, ventilation, adornment and 
beautiful surroundings. That almost universal desire 
among Europeans for a pleasant home, both as regards 
external surroundings and internal comforts, seems to 
be wanting among Hindus. Even the rich, who could 
well afford to adorn their homes and surround them- 
selves with domestic comforts, are not disposed to do 
so, at least they do not strive after what we should 
consider home comforts. 

The interior of the average native house is even 
more unattractive than its rude exterior. Chairs and 
tables there are none. A low stool, a rude cot always 
shorter than a man and without mattress, a loose mat 
for the accommodation of visitors, a box or two for 
storing away jewels, best clothing and other valuables, 
and innumerable earthen pots for holding rice and 
other provisions, complete the stock of furniture, but 



APPEARANCE AND HOME-LIFE, 31 

not all the- other stock. Cows, calves, buffaloes, bul- 
locks and fowls are received upon terms of the greatest 
familiarity in the ordinary Hindu house, and generally 
occupy a conspicuous place in the very bosom of the 
family. 

There is a growing desire among all classes for 
European furniture, and the day is not far distant, we 
trust, when there will be a great improvement in the 
homes of even the humbler classes. There are, how- 
ever, other things needed besides tables, chairs, and 
sofas, to convert the Hindu house into a home. It 
must be made inviting, pleasant for the mind as well as 
comfortable for the body. There must be more genial 
social intercouse between husband and wife, parents 
and children. Such a thing as social games or other 
entertainments in the home circle, with and for the chil- 
dren, are almost unknown. Parents would consider 
such unbending unbecoming their dignity and subver- 
sive of their authority. 

Here as elsewhere among Hindus, fear is the motive 
power, and until this is replaced by love as the ruling 
principle, home will not be the sacred happy place 
which God designed it to be. We do not say that 
Hindus are devoid of parental, filial, and conjugal love; 
by no means, but we do say that these are not made 
the basis of family influence and home happiness as 
they ought to be. 



32 E VER Y-DA Y LIFE IN INDIA, 



III. THE REIxIGIOK OF THE HINDUS. 

The Hindus are preeminently a religious people. 
They eat religiously, bathe religiously, shave religious- 
ly, dress religiously, marry religiously, die religiously, 
are burned or buried religiously, and for years to come 
on certain days are remembered religiously. 

From morning to night, from day to day, from year 
to year, and from generation to generation the Hindus 
are controlled in almost every act of their lives by their 
religion. 

The huge and tyrannous caste system, which holds 
every man in its iron grasp from the day of his birth to 
the hour of his death, is but a part of the Hindu 
religion. 

MORALITY. 

It must not be supposed that Hindus are moral in 
proportion as they are religious, or even that morality 
is a very important part of their religion. Religion 
and morality in India have long since, alas, parted com- 
pany, the former continuing to make a grand show, 
receiving homage, applause, and respect, while the 
latter has been neglected, ill-treated, and allowed to find 
a home and friends as best she could. 

Morality without religion is cold and unsatisfactory, 
but religion without morality is a loathsome blasphemy. 
By way of illustration on this point I give a few in- 
stances which have come under my personal observation, 



RELIGION OF THE HINDUS, 33 

In 1878 a temple was being built in the village of Got- 
tipadu. Hindu temples are generally built by wealthy 
individuals who erect them for "merit." It is seldom 
that the villagers join together to build them. In this 
case, however a number of the prominent men of the 
village were interested in the erection of the temple, 
and one day when they wanted charcoal for the black- 
smith who was doing the iron-work for them, they con- 
cluded the cheapest way to get it would be to appro- 
priate a certain tree which belonged to public land, 
and burn it. 

After they had cut down the tree and taken it away, 
a policeman unfortunately came that way and inquired 
what had become of the missing tree, whereupon the 
temple-builders declared upon oath that a certain poor 
man whom they named had hewn it down and carried 
it away. The poor man was arrested, thrown into the 
police station, and would have been sent to jail but for 
the timely interposition of a Christian teacher, who 
knew the circumstances of the case and appeared in his 
behalf 

At another village not far from my home, a woman 
had a temple erected. She had called a stone-mason 
from Ongole — sixty miles to the south — and when he 
had done his work she neglected to pay the balance of 
wages due him. From week to week and from month 
to month she put him off. Meanwhile she heard of an 
old debt which the poor man owed to a distant relative 
of hers, and sending for his creditor she soon arranged 
for the cancelling of both debts. The poor stone- 



34 E VER Y'DA Y LIFE IN INDIA. 

mason was in great distress and away from his home. 
On this last occasion he had already waited fifteen days 
in the hope of getting what was yet due him. When 
the old debt was turned in against him, he begged that 
she would give him only enough to buy his food until 
he could reach his home. To this request the pious 
devotee replied that if he came in ten days she would 
give him road expenses to go home ! 

A case was lately brought before the High Court in 
Madras, in which a wealthy Zemindar was accused of 
instigating the robbery of a man who had acquired a 
considerable sum of money as a laborer on a foreign 
island, and who had just returned to his native coun- 
try with his hard-earned savings. The circumstance 
brought out during the trial to which we call attention 
is, that one sum of money consisting of 211 rupees was 
divided among ten men engaged in the robbery, giving 
each one twenty-one rupees and leaving one rupee 
over. This odd rupee was piously set aside for their 
god, 

HINDUISM. 

What is Hinduism? Like an immense glacier 
slowly descending from the mountain, gathering up and 
incorporating stones, earth, and debris of whatever kind 
comes into its way, but at the same time accommoda- 
ting itself to the configuration of the mountain side, so 
has Hinduism come down through the ages, gathering 
up and incorporating whatever gods and goddesses, 
heroes and saints, religious theories and doctrines, rites 
and ceremonies came in its way, and accommodating 



RELIGION OF THE HINDUS. 35 

itself at the same time with remarkable flexibility to 
whatever influences were too powerful to be overcome 
by it. 

What Hinduism is theoretically it is not our object 
to discuss. Any standard cyclopedia will furnish the 
reader with this information better than he could learn 
it by a lifetime's intercourse among Hindus. Not one 
in a thousand of them can give an intelligent idea of 
what he beHeves, or can state a reason why he observes 
certain and innumerable rites and ceremonies, beyond 
the all-sufficient one that " it is our custom." 

So flexible is Hinduism and in a certain way so 
tolerant, that Christianity, its deadly foe, could at once 
be incorporated into this huge system, if Christians 
would but consent to have Jesus Christ regarded as one 
of the innumerable gods of the Hindu pantheon, form a 
caste sub-division by themselves and pay proper homage 
to the Brahmans. Regarded in its widest, popular 
sense, we can give no other definition of Hinduism but 
that it is the religion of the Hindus. 

THE ANCIENT VEDAS. 

What of the ancient Vedas or sacred books of the 
Hindus, whose praise has resounded throughout the 
whole civilized world ? 

No more than you clu find the pure, sparkling 
rivulet, which was Its source, In the muddy, filthy 
stream as it lazily finds Its way, a mighty river, Into the 
sea, can you find in modern practical Hinduism the 
pure and exalted teachings of the ancient Vedas. 



36 EVERY-DA V LIFE IN INDIA, 

The millions of India know as little about the Vedas 
as they do about the Bible, or even less. It is not from 
those grand old books that they have gotten their many 
gods, their idolatrous rites, their superstitious obser- 
vances and their abominable caste. So far as they 
relate to a Divine Being, many of the hymns of the early 
Hindu Vedas are exceedingly pure and sublime, worthy 
of the admiration of all thoughtful minds. Of late years 
efforts have been made in certain quarters by intelligent 
and devout Hindus to lead the nation back to the pure 
religion of the Vedas^ but so far their success has not 
been very encouraging. 

BRAHMANISM. 

Hinduism and Brahmanism are not interchangeable 
terms, though they are sometimes used thus. 

Brahmanism is only a part, but a very important 
part of the whole system of Hinduism. Hinduism has 
been affected and moulded by Buddhism, Mohammedan- 
ism, the demon-worship of the Aborigines, and possibly 
by Christianity, but it has taken its chief coloring from 
Brahmanism. 

Brahmanism rests not upon the ancient Vedas, but 
upon the later Hindu so-called sacred writings, and to 
it must be ascribed the origin and maintenance of caste, 
the subtile pantheistic theology and the gross polythe- 
istic idolatry of India, the doctrine of the transmigra- 
tion of souls, and the sacerdotal hierarchy. 

Brahmanism is utterly selfish, being constructed and 
maintained in all its features solely for the interests of 



RELIGION OF THE HINDUS. 37 

one class— the Brahmans. To elevate and benefit the 
masses it has no lessons nor influences. Never was 
more consummate wisdom displayed by a crafty priest- 
hood, than was shown by the Brahmans, who thus per- 
fected a system which should at once secure its own 
perpetuation and the social and religious supremacy of 

its founders. 

WORSHIP. 

Real, spiritual, heart-worship is, we fear, but little 
known among the Hindus. Wherever found among 
them it exists in spite of, and not by virtue of, their 
system of theology. 

Their prescribed rites and ceremonies are observed 
in a routine way as matters of duty ; their numerous 
festival days are regarded as holidays rather than as 
occasions of worship or thanksgiving ; their pilgrimages 
and works of charity are performed confessedly for 
merit ; their offerings to the gods are made in payment 
of vows, or to appease their anger, and their prayers 
are almost invariably set phrases or vain repetitions. 

The names of the gods, as "Rama, Rama, Rama," 
are repeated hundreds of times in succession, and the 
account registered by means of a rosary. So efficacious 
is the repeating of the names of the gods considered, 
that even when by mistake or accident sounds resem- 
bling the names are uttered, blessings are said to follow. 

Such a thing as meeting together with one accord in 
one place for the united spiritual worship of God, is 
unknown among the Hindus. The caste sub-divisions 
and the utter selfishness of the people would make such 

Life in India. ^ 



38 E VER Y-DA Y LIFE IN INDIA . 

assemblies at present impossible, and it is probable that 
the want of this feature in the Hindu religion has con- 
tributed in a great measure to bring about this deplo- 
rable isolation among the people. 

HINDUISM AND THE TRUE GOD. 

It has been the fashion with books of a popular style 
to speak of Hinduism only with ridicule and contempt, 
while the Hindus have been put upon a religious level 
with the savages of Africa and the South Sea Islands. 
A late English writer, whose book has been republished 
in America, speaks of the Hindus as " Millions of 
heathen idolators, living without God and hope in the 
world — knowing not the Giver of every good and per- 
fect gift," etc. 

Such language, we hold, can do no good, because it 
is not true. It may admit of *' interpretation," but we 
fail to see the necessity of writing on so plain a subject 
in language which needs a commentary. 

We are not called upon to defend Hinduism — no 
sensible man can defend modern Hinduism — but in 
taking hold only of its ridiculous features and holding 
these up before the public as Hinduism, we stultify 
ourselves, deserve and receive the contempt of thoughtful 
Hindus, and do no good in the way of reformation. 

Hinduism as a religious system may deserve our 
righteous indignation, but if it be only the silly, flimsy, 
pitiable affair we see so often portrayed in its name, 
how is it that we have not long since with all our zeal 
and learning ridiculed it out of existence ? 



RELIGION OF THE HINDUS, 39 

Hinduism is no doubt in the main a system of error, 
but it is a gigantic system and has just enough of truth 
and utiHty in it to cement together its spurious parts ; 
and until we apply ourselves to the work of pointing 
out to the Hindu what use he can make of the valuable 
parts of his own endeared system, in the building up of 
a new and better one, we shall utterly fail to do him 
religious good. 

We must endeavor to put ourselves in his place. 
He looks upon us as a people with " no religion," while 
we, in pitiable contempt, turn to him and call him a 
heathen with no knowledge of the true God. 

It is utterly unfair to say that Hindus do not know 
the true God. They may not have a true and full 
knowledge of God ; their devotion may and does spring 
from fear rather than from love; they may not have 
that sweet communion with God which springs from a 
knowledge of him as " Our Father," and they may be 
without hope and faith in Jesus Christ as a personal 
Saviour; they even may and do ascribe to God acts 
and attributes which are unworthy of God as the 
Christian knows him ; but to deny them in Mo a knowl- 
edge of the true God is unjust and brings no good either 
to the Christian or the Hindu. 

INFLUENCE OF CHRISTIANITY UPON HINDUISM. 

Of all the forces with which Hinduism has ever had to 
contend none has been so strong and vital as Christianity. 

Christianity is to-day influencing Hinduism in ways 
undreamed of by Hindus, and to an extent scarcely 



40 E VER Y-DA Y LIFE IN INDIA. 

credible to Christians themselves. Christian preachers, 
mission schools and western books are changing and 
purifying the whole theological atmosphere of India. 
The believers in a plurality of gods are fast disappear- 
ing, and audiences which were once delighted with the 
fabled stories of the silly exploits of Rama and Krishna, 
now laugh at them. The acts of murder, adultery, 
theft and intrigue which their sacred books ascribe to 
the hero gods, are now explained away or kept in the 
background by the defenders of Hinduism. 

Some go so far as to reject all the later sacred books 
and claim as their religious guide only the ancient 
Vedas, declaring that these teach a spiritual God and 
salvation by faith. 

A discussion has of late been going on among edu- 
cated natives in Madras, advising the introduction into 
Hindu schools of a systematic study of Hinduism as 
taught in the ancient Vedas, in order to compete with 
mission schools on the score of religious instruction. 

The "Brahmo Somaj," or theistic church of India, 
with its cry of " India for Christ," while its members 
hold fast with both hands to the ancient Vedas and to 
many doctrines and reservations incompatible with the 
gospel, is but an outgrowth of Christian influence upon 
Hinduism. All these efforts at religious reformation 
on the part of Hindus themselves are the fruit of Chris- 
tian missionary effort, fruit, however, which, like the 
sickly apple ripening before its time, is stunted, diseased 
and tasteless and not to be compared with that which 
is yet to ripen for Christ and his church in India. 



CASTE. 41 



IV. CASTE: A SACRED IHSTITUTIOK. 

We introduce this subject by a few extracts from 
the Institutes of Manu. These Institutes or Laws of 
Manu were written 700 or 800 years before the birth of 
Christ, and they form the most complete and important 
work on Hindu law extant. " Hindu law," it must be 
borne in mind, has a much wider signification than the 
term English or Roman law, for it comprises not only 
political but also social, religious, and moral laws. 

Though we introduce these ancient records in re- 
gard to caste, it is not our object to trace the rise and 
progress of this unique institution, nor even to give a 
picture of caste as found in the ancient sacred books. 
Learned volumes on each of these subjects abound, and 
the discussion does not fall within the scope of this book. 

Though this gigantic system is gradually and surely 
losing its hold upon the milhons of India, it is yet by 
no means a thing of the past only. 

Hindu caste differs fundamentally from social class 
distinctions in other countries, in that it is emphati- 
cally a religious institution; one, moreover, which is 
inherent in birth, prescribes a man's course through 
life, follows him into the future world, and holds him 
with such unrelenting fetters that no power either from 
within or from without can change his position in the 
caste scale. 

It is an institution which has a mighty hold upon 



42 E VER Y-DA Y LIFE IN INDIA. 

the people, and it must pass away almost as gradually 
as it grew up. We give the following extracts from 
Manu to show our readers that this same system of caste 
which so puzzles Western people was in full force twenty- 
five hundred years ago ! These Laws, which were 
written about that time, had nothing to do with making 
caste rules, any more than a society journal has to do 
with making rules of etiquette. Manu, if we may use 
this word to denote the writer, simply codified what 
w^ere then the generally understood laws and regula- 
tions in regard to caste. Long before his time, caste 
may have been only a social institution, and in the time 
of the early Vedas, written a thousand years or more 
before Christ, there was no Hindu caste, such as had 
grown up in the time of Manu and has extended in its 
main features down to the present day. 

The five distinct classes of human beings which 
enter into the caste list are the Brakmans, or holy 
teachers ; the Kshatriyas, or soldiers and kings of the 
nation ; the Vaisyas, or farmers and traders ; the Sudras, 
or servants of the three other classes ; and the Out-castes, 
who, though strictly not belonging to the caste list, 
may be placed on it by virtue of the relation which 
they sustain to the others. 

Of these various classes Manu says : 

The very birth of Brahmans is a constant incarnation of 
Dharma, God of Justice ; for the Brahman is born to promote 
justice, and to promote ultimate happiness. Book I. : 98. 

When a Brahman springs to light, he is born above the 
world, the chief of all creatures, assigned to guard the treas- 
ury of duties, religious and civil. Book I. : 99. 




EDUCATED BRAHMANS. 



CASTE. 45 

Whatever exists in the universe is all in effect, though not 
in form, the wealth of the Brahman ; since the Brahman is 
entitled to it all by his primogeniture and eminence of birth. 

Book I. : loo. 

The Brahman eats but his own food, wears but his own 
apparel, and bestows but his own in alms; through the 
benevolence of the Brahman, indeed, other mortals enjoy 
life. Book I. : loi. 

Although Brahmans employ themselves in all sorts of 
mean occupations, they must invariably be honored ; for they 
are something transcendently divine. Book IX. : 319. 

The first part of a Brahman's compound name should 
indicate holiness; of a Kshatriya's, power; of a Vaisya's, 
wealth ; and of a Sudra's, contempt. Book II. : 31. 

Servile attendance on Brahmans learned in the Veda, 
chiefly on such as keep house and are famed for virtue, is of 
itself the highest duty of a Sudra, and leads him to future 
beatitude. Book IX. : 334. 

Pure in body and mind, humbly serving the three higher 
classes, mild in speech, never arrogant, ever seeking refuge 
in Brahmans principally, he may attain the most eminent 
class in another transmigration. Book IX. : 335. 

Of the out-castes or non-castes it is said : 

Their abode must be out of town ; they must not have the 
use of entire vessels; their sole wealth must be dogs and 
asses. Book X. : 51. 

Their clothes must be mantles of the deceased; their 
dishes for food, broken pots ; their ornaments, rusty iron ; 
continually must they roam from place to place. Book X. : 52. 

Let no man who regards his civil and religious duty, hold 
any intercourse with them, let their transactions be confined 
to themselves, and their marriages only between equals. 

Book X.: 53. 



46 E VERY'DA Y LIFE IN INDIA. 

Let food be given to them in potsherds, but not by the 
hands of the giver ; and let them not walk by night in cities 
or towns. Book X. : 54. 

The Brahmans, Kshatriyas, and Vaisyas all belong 
to the holy " twice-born," and wear the sacred thread, 
so that for practical purposes they are all classed together 
in these degenerate days by outsiders, though among 
themselves they, of course, keep up what they consider 
necessary distinctions. 

The Sudras having now gained a standing in soci- 
ety by the acquisition of wealth, and in many cases of 
learning, they also are commonly spoken of as " high- 
caste" people, in distinction from the Pariahs and 
other out-castes, who are spoken of as "low-caste" 
people. 

So great has been the change since the days of 
Manu that the Sudra, whose chief duty was then said 
to be " servile attendance on Brahmans," is now classed 
with his lord, as " high-caste." In the case of the out- 
castes, the improvement is equally marked. Their 
abode is still in a manner "out of town," but they use 
what vessels they please, and own what lands, houses, 
catde, and other property they can acquire, without 
any reference to the ancient legal restriction which for- 
bids them all but " dogs and asses." Their clothing is 
as good and costly as they can afford, and their orna- 
ments are of glass, silver, and gold, but seldom of the 
prescribed "rusty iron." 

Let it not be supposed, however, that the infringe- 
ment of the ancient customs on the part of the low- 



CASTE, 47 

caste people is a matter of indifference to the higher 
castes. Quite otherwise. Inch by inch the ground 
has to be fought by the lower castes or by their friends. 
Their procuring of land, of comfortable houses, of 
schools, etc., is persistently opposed by the higher 
castes. Even their clothing is a matter of which the 
latter are yet very jealous, and during the late Afghan 
war, when many English officers were withdrawn from 
local duty and sent north, the Brahmans circulated re- 
ports that the English would soon all be driven out of 
India, and then affairs would revert to their old state. 
One of the first reforms, they told the low-caste people, 
would be that they would not be allowed to wear upper 
clothes, nor any clothing at all except such " mantles of 
the deceased" as are allowed by the ancient law. Such 
a change would, of course, be utterly impossible in these 
days, even if every European influence were withdrawn 
from India, but the incident shows that the old jealousy 
is not yet altogether dead, even on this point. 

In the native state of Travancore, where Brahman 
influence has retained its hold the longest, there have 
of late years been even bloody riots and lawsuits ex- 
tending to the high courts, solely because the low-caste 
Christian women refused to appear in public with the 
upper part of the body uncovered. 

It was only after strong and repeated representation 
on the part of the Madras government, that the native 
prince who rules Travancore agreed to issue a procla- 
mation which gives legal freedom to the Christian women 
to appear before high-caste people with their bodies 
6 



48 E VER Y-DA V LIFE IN INDIA . 

above the waist covered with an "upper" cloth. In 
that proclamation it was distinctly stated, however, that 
the cloths thus used are to be made of coarse material. 
This incident reminds us of two things, namely, the 
tenacity with which the natives, from the peasant to the 
prince, hold to their ancient caste usages, and the de- 
vastation which British rule and Christianity are slowly 
but surely making of those same usages. The British 
government is nominally neutral in matters of religion. 
It does nothing to harm caste and Hinduism from a 
religious point of view. It is only when these interfere 
illegally with the liberty of the subjects that the govern- 
ment takes any notice of the case. 

However, in introducing schools and colleges with 
Western literature and science, in introducing Western 
railways, telegraphs, and steamboats, in introducing 
Western systems of medicine and sanitary laws, and in 
a thousand other ways the influence of the government 
is to undermine caste. In other words, we might say it 
is light in conflict with darkness^ and as sure as dark- 
ness has to flee before the morning sun, so surely must 
caste flee before the learning and the religion of the West. 

Many thoughtful Hindus are aware of this and 
admit it. To some it is a matter of deep concern, to 
others of sheer indifference. Thousands of educated 
young men have lost all faith in the authority and 
necessity of caste rules, but to maintain the peace of 
their homes and the good will of their neighbors, they 
have not yet forsaken the outward observances. 

Every decade brings forth wondrous changes in 



caste: - 49 

public sentiment. When railway travel was first Intro- 
duced the Brahmans said, " We cannot use the cars, for 
we are not allowed to sit on the same seat with a low- 
caste man, or even on a seat which has ever been used 
by a Pariah." Now these objections have all dis- 
appeared, and we find the third-class cars literally 
packed with natives of all castes, from the holy Brah- 
man down to the greasy Chuckler. 

With missionary schools the Brahmans had a simi- 
lar quarrel. " How can we come, sit on the same bench 
and recite in the same class with low-caste boys?" 
was their momentous question. The missionaries calm- 
ly informed them that as this was a difficulty of their 
own making or discovery, they must also find a solu- 
tion. Meanwhile the mission schools could afford to 
do without the Brahmans better than they could afibrd 
to do without the schools, and the consequence is that 
now we find all classes, Brahmans, Sudras, Mohamme- 
dans, Christians, and Pariahs, seated in the same class 
and reciting the same lesson, which often may be even 
a Bible lesson. 

Sanitary regulations also come into contact with 
caste rules. To the credit of the caste system it must 
be said that on the whole it Is on the side of health and 
cleanliness. Its contact with sanitary regulations arises 
chiefly from the exclusive and selfish features of caste as 
restricted to the higher classes. The following extract 
from a late work on India* illustrates our point : 

* "The Trident, the Crescent, and the Cross," by Rev. James 
Vaughan. 



50 E VER Y-DA Y LIFE IN INDIA, 

" Some years ago the Municipal Commissioners of Calcutta 
determined to bring pure water into the city. Up to that 
period the inhabitants had been drinking the foul water of the 
river Hoogly, or the not less foul water of tanks in their com- 
pounds. The municipal water was to be brought, after being 
thoroughly purified, a distance of sixteen miles through pipes. 
The pipes were to be connected with hydrants planted along 
the streets, out of which the people might draw the water. 
' But,' said the Brahmans, ' it is impossible for us to make use 
of the water. As all other castes are to have access to the 
same hydrants, we, to avoid contamination, must stand aloof.* 
So said caste ; but pure water and health were mightier than 
caste. To save appearances the Brahmans convened a coun- 
cil of learned heads to deliberate the pros and cons of the 
case. There was no doubt in any one's mind as to the result. 
The report of the pundits was all that any tender conscience 
could wish ; they fished out of the Shasters a few convenient 
texts which sufficiently settled the point. One text, as if 
borrowing the words of a better book, said, * To the pure all 
things are pure;' therefore orthodox Hindus had only to 
assume their personal purity and drink to their heart's con- 
tent. Another text, breathing a spirit of muscular Hinduism, 
said, 'Health first, religion next.' Another declared that 
' All flowing water is pure.' But the downright practical and 
clinching passage came at last : ' Impure objects become pure 
by paying the value of them.' Argument : * We pay the water- 
rate ; ergo, the water to us becomes pure.' This argument, 
we imagine, was not less satisfactory to the municipal author- 
ties than to the Brahmans. Thus followed another blow to 
caste. At this day, without scruple or protest, the Brahmans 
quaff the water of the hydrants along with all the other 
castes." 

Caste as a sacred religious institution is doomed. 
The social lines which now separate the various classes 
will not soon be obliterated, neither do we see any 



CASTE, 51 

special necessity for this. Even Christianity wages war 
mainly against the religious features of the caste system, 
and though some reformers clamor loudly for general 
sociability, intermarriage, etc., we fail to see what 
special good can come from such a course. Let all be 
free to choose in such matters ; but lay compulsion — 
even moral compulsion — on none, else our cure will be 
as bad as the disease. 



52 E VER Y-DA Y LIFE IN INDIA, 



Y. CASTE: III- ACTUAL LIFE. 

As Europeans living in India, caste attracts our 
attention less as a vast system than as the source of 
numberless strange and to us inexplicable acts — acts, 
some of which command our sincere respect, while 
others appear to us ridiculously silly and childish. At 
first, too, we are at a loss to distinguish the members of 
the various castes at sight. Gradually we get over this 
last difficulty, and though we may not be able to state 
clearly the distinguishing marks, we seldom mistake a 
Brahman for a Vaisya, or a Sudra for a Pariah. The 
face, the skin, the dress, the language, the manners, all 
come to our aid; and after several years' residence in 
India and free intercourse among the people, a European 
may usually with certainty tell the caste of a native — 
though he may be utterly unable to lay down any rules 
for guidance in the matter. 

NUMEROUS SUBDIVISIONS. 
It must not be supposed that the four original 
classes — Brahmans, Kshatriyas, Vaisyas, and Sudras — 
constitute a complete classification of castes as we find 
them now. The subdivisions are almost endless. 
They vary somewhat in different parts of India, but in 
almost any section of the country probably a hundred 
minor caste subdivisions might be enumerated. These 



CASTE, 53 

subdivisions are based upon various grounds, as occu- 
pation, religion, language, birthplace, etc. Among 
Brahmans, for instance, there are a number of subdivis- 
ions, distinguishable to outsiders chiefly by the reli- 
gious marks on their foreheads and their name-endings, 
as sastri^ row^ puntulu, ayar^ etc. Among the Sudras 
the subdivisions are based chiefly, though not altogether, 
upon employment, as weavers, goldsmiths, carpenters, 
farmers, etc. 

Writers upon caste have sometimes mistaken social 
standing in connection with employment for caste, and 
have spoken of the " water-carrier caste," " gardener 
caste," ** butler caste," etc. This is scarcely a proper 
use of the term, if we wish to retain its original religious 
meaning. Such subdivisions are not castes, but guilds 
or trades. Thus while it is true that a butler or even a 
gardener would consider the work of a water-carrier 
beneath him, and would beg or starve rather than do it, 
his objection does not arise from caste prejudice, but 
from social pride. Though a European's staff of a 
dozen servants may all be of the same caste, they will 
object vehemently to interchanging work, and this has 
led some foreigners to conclude that for each work there 
must be a separate caste, which is not the case. It is 
true, however, that in time, some of these subdivisions 
become very far separated and take to themselves many 
of the distinctions which formerly separated only the 
original castes. They refuse to eat together or to inter- 
marry, while each party claims to be as good as, and a 
little better than, the other. 



54 E VER Y-DA Y LIFE IN INDIA. 

CASTE AMONG NON-CASTES. 

One of the strange features of this caste system is 
that it has extended with all its severity even to the 
lowest out-castes. The greasy, odorous, carrion -eating 
Madigar; the unwashed, uncombed, and often un- 
clothed Mala; the thievish, nomadic, mouse-eating 
Hindu gypsy — these all hold to caste as tenaciously as 
the holiest Benares Brahman. 

In dealing with our low- caste Christians we have 
often been amazed at the wonderful hold which caste 
rules and regulations have upon these people. When 
we remember, however, that intelligence is not a neces- 
sary nor even a very desirable component part of the 
caste system, we are, after all, not so much surprised. 

LOW-CASTE PEOPLE DEFEND THE SYSTEM WHICH 
DEGRADES THEM. 

This in our eyes is very marvellous. We should 
think the low castes and the out-castes would have a 
quarrel with the institution which thus degraded them 
in the human scale. Not so. Their view of the matter 
is from a very different point. They look upon the 
whole system as of divine origin, and their being down 
low in the scale is their fate^ and with fate is is useless 
to quarrel. 

An intelligent Sudra — the Headman of a village — 
in a friendly conversation with me on this subject ex- 
pressed himself thus : " As God has not created all the 
beasts alike, but has made some horses, some cows, 
some sheep, and others dogs and cats, so he also crea- 



CASTE. • 55 

ted different classes of men, making some Brahmans, 
some Sudras, and others Pariahs," 

On another occasion, when I remonstrated with a 
Pariah for holding to caste distinctions, he said, " Look 
at my body. Has not God made a difference in strength 
and skill between my right hand and my left ? Has he 
not made one part of my body a leg, another an arm, 
another the chest, and another the head? So has he 
created different castes of men." 

I do not say that it is difficult to find suitable an- 
swers to such foolish statements, but the incidents show 
how settled is the hold which caste has even upon those 
who suffer most from its unjust restrictions. 

INDIVIDUALS CANNOT RISE NOR FALL FROM ONE 
CASTE TO ANOTHER. 

Caste being a distinction inherent in birth, indi- 
viduals can neither rise nor fall in the scale except 
during successive transmigrations. 

A Brahman holds his dignity irrespective of houses, 
lands, gold, or learning. He may be a beggar or an 
idiot, but he is still a Brahman and must not be 
touched by a Pariah, though the latter should happen 
to be learned and* wealthy. Neither will any amount 
of wealth, intelligence, influence, or power raise an indi- 
vidual in the caste scale. 

There is such a thing as expelling members from 

caste, but this consists rather in withholding all caste 

privilege from the individual, and neither he himself 

nor his friends consider that he has actually become a 

7 



56 E VER Y'DA V LIFE IN INDIA . 

non-caste man, in the sense of having lost his inherent 
caste distinction. These remain, though he has been 
deprived of his caste rights and privileges. 

Except in the case of Christian converts such rights 
are generally restored. Fines and penances are not 
only convenient but all-powerful agents in the restora- 
tion of caste. 

CASTE WINKS AT DIRT AND IMMORALITY. 

Though there are in the Hindu sacred books pre- 
scribed means of discipline for immorality as well as for 
breaking caste rules, yet it is a well-known fact that a 
Brahman, in these days, may be a liar, a thief, an 
adulterer and a scoundrel of the vilest kind, and yet 
retain his caste without remonstrance on the part of his 
fellow castemen. Let him, however, take a drink of 
water from the hand of a Pariah, and in a moment his 
family, neighbors and friends will be up in arms against 
him. 

Among the low castes a Mala may eat his fill of 
carrion if he is so inclined, or he may live solely on 
what he can steal by night from the farmers' fields, and 
his caste-fellows see no harm ; but let him sit down to a 
meal, however clean and palatably, prepared by a 
Madigar, and before he can get food, water, fire, and 
the other necessaries of life in his village, he must pay 
the prescribed defilement fine and be restored again to 
caste. 

Brahmans by the hundred will bathe in their sacred 
tanks, sit on the banks to clean their teeth, and spit 



CASTE. 57 

into the water profusely, wash their clothing in it, and 
then drink the water and call it clean, whereas they will 
refuse to drink even the purest filtered water in the 
houses of Europeans. Should an unholy Pariah foot 
come near that "sacred tank," the water would in an 
instant become defiled, and endless costly ceremonies 
would be required to purify it again. 

Such is caste in some of its strange and ridiculous 
features. In some of its other manifestations the seri- 
ous, objectionable features of the system become ap- 
parent. 

CASTE IS A BARRIER TO MUTUAL HELP AND SYM- 
PATHY. 

But for caste, the Hindus might be a free, indepen- 
dent and self-governed nation. As it is, they are now 
and have been for centuries governed by foreigners. 
Their present rulers confess that caste jealousies, more 
than military force, contribute to the stability of Brit- 
ish rule in India. Whether the Hindus were better or 
worse off without British rule is not the question before 
us. The fact which we state is, that even to repel an 
invader or a foreign foe the Hindus cannot combine. 

This same feature of selfishness which caste fosters, 
becomes more shocking when we see it in the daily 
life of the people. 

A Pariah in distress would be allowed to perish like 
a dog, perish of sheer hunger and exposure, before a 
Brahman would touch, feed or shelter him with his own 
hands. 



58 E VER Y-DA V LIFE IN INDIA . 

Likewise a Brahman would be allowed to suffer 
very severely before a low-caste man would dare touch 
or help him. In extreme cases some Brahmans might 
take food from low-caste hands, but most of them would 
prefer death to such defilement. During the late famine 
we saw many instances of this. 

Among the lower classes caste dissipates all ambi- 
tion for healthy improvements, while among the higher 
it fosters pride and arrogance. The Brahman school 
inspector refuses to take a slate or a book from the 
hand of a low-caste schoolboy. The low-caste client 
throws his petition from a distance at the feet of the 
Brahman lawyer or magistrate. And thus in a thou- 
sand ways the low-caste man is reminded of his unhap- 
py " fate " from childhood to old age. 

CASTE REPRESSES INDUSTRY. 

By law, that is, by Hindu sacred law — the Brahmans 
are forbidden to engage in manual labor. They are 
taught, and by their influence the whole nation has 
been taught, that it is more honorable to beg than to 
work. 

The effect in this respect is very deplorable. In 
another way the consequence is still worse; intellect 
and labor have thus become estranged, and India has 
been for thousands of years at a stand-still in skilled 
manufacture and the inventive arts. So disastrous has 
been the effect of having education thus separated from 
manual labor that the very faculty of invention seems 
to have become almost wholly lost to the Hindu mind. 



CASTE. 59 

Caste also, by prescribed laws and penalties, forbids 
foreign travel, and thus restrains commercial enterprise. 
By proscribing leather as unclean it relegates a most 
important branch of industry to the very lowest and 
most ignorant out-castes, and thus in numberless ways 
it hangs as a monstrous weight upon the nation and 
upon every individual. 

CASTE HAS DESTROYED THE MORAL COURAGE OF 
THE HINDU. 

Though intelligent Hindus may see and own that 
caste is a national curse, they have not the moral cour- 
age to break away from its fetters. To us this is most 
inexplicable, and it is a phenomenon which must be 
ascribed to that influence of caste itself which has 
taught the Hindu to regard custom as greater than 
truth and right. 

At a public meeting in the interest of female educa- 
tion an intelligent native said, " We must use the reason 
which God has given us. We have already abandoned 
many usages derived from our ancestors, and many 
others we must give up, and among them this cursed 
caste which they have handed down to us." 

A Hindu newspaper, the " Indu Prokash^' relieves 
itself thus on the subject of caste : 

" The tyranny of caste extends from the most tri- 
fling to the most important affairs of Hindu life. It 
cripples the independent action of individuals, sows the 
seed of bitter discord between the different sections of 
society, encourages the most abominable practices and 



6o E VER Y-DA Y LIFE IN INDIA . 

dries up all the springs of that social, moral, and Intel- 
lectual freedom which alone can secure greatness, wheth- 
er to individuals or nations. It has pampered the 
pride and insolence of the Brahmans, by teaching them 
to look upon themselves, notwithstanding their weak- 
nesses, as the favorites of the gods, nay, the very gods 
on earth, who are to keep the lower orders in a state of 
utter degradation and illiterate servitude. Such is our 
caste system ; so unjustifiable in principle, so unfair in 
organization, and so baneful in its consequences to the 
highest interests of the country." 

The strangest part of all this is that the very men 
who thus publicly abuse caste, privately and in their 
social intercourse bow implicity to all its tyrannous 
mandates. 

CASTE IS OPPOSED TO CHRISTIANITY. 

From what we have already said it will be evident 
to the reader that the spirit of caste is directly opposed 
to the spirit of the gospel of Christ. Caste knows 
nothing, and wants to know nothing, of the universal 
brotherhood of man. Its obligation to love extends 
barely beyond the family circle and certainly not be- 
yond a very limited class circle. 

It is therefore now and always has been the greatest 
obstacle to the spread of Christianity in India. When 
arrayed against a Christian convert from its ranks it 
equals in fierceness the persecutions of the famous 
Inquisition, though from open violence it is restrained 
by the British government. The caste convert, like 



CASTE, 6i 

the victim of the Inquisition, is assailed from without, 
but what is perhaps even more distressing, his foes are 
also those of his own household. Unless he has suc- 
ceeded in reconciling parents, wife, and children, to the 
new step before he receives baptism, he will find him- 
self deserted by his dearest loved ones ; and even his 
own children, whom he would gladly train up, shelter, 
and protect, are taken away from him by violence, and he 
can have them restored to his home again only by long, 
tedious, and expensive suits in courts of justice. The 
ordeal which the Christian convert from the higher 
caste has to undergo is indeed a severe one, and yet 
we are not prepared to say that this is all against the 
cause of Christianity. Is any one ready to assert that 
the persecutions of the early Christians were not for 
the good of the church? Hindus are exceedingly 
anxious to do what will please their superiors and what 
they think will win them favor, and if it could be done 
without any material sacrifice on their part they would 
consent in a moment to embrace the religion of their 
rulers. Such an event, if it were possible, would be 
more deleterious to the good of the church in India, 
than all the persecutions which can be arrayed against 
her. Could anything more subversive of the good of 
the church be imagined than for thousands, ay, millions 
of ignorant, superstitious idolaters to proclaim them- 
selves Christians? 

Where low-caste communities, out of religious indif- 
ference rather than out of conviction, have come over 
en masse to be enrolled as Christians, what has been 



62 E VERY-DA Y LIFE IN INDIA. 

the result? A misapprehension of Christian truth, a 
low standard of morality, disgrace to the Christian 
name in the midst of the heathen, and endless vexa- 
tion to the missionary whose duty it was to bring order 
out of the confusion. If, then, in mass conversions on 
so small a scale the danger to the purity of the church 
is not inconsiderable, what would it have been if the 
Hindus as a nation had professed themselves Chris- 
tians ? and so far as we can see, this they would have 
done under the circumstances but for the restraining 
influence of caste. 

As it is, the Christian church has the finest oppor- 
tunity for preserving her purity, and for converting the 
intellect as well as the heart of the Hindu nation. 

While we, therefore, admit that caste is a barrier to 
the spread of Christianity, we hold also that it Is a 
wholesome barrier, and one which the infant Christian 
church in India could ill afford to spare. 

Caste has not been an unmixed evil. Notwith- 
standing all the bad effects and the evil influences 
which are traceable to the system of Hindu caste, we 
cannot agree with those who can see nothing whatever 
of good in It, either in the past or in the present. 
Something even worse than this caste system might 
have befallen India during the past three thousand 
years of isolation and seclusion. 

However weak in its restraining influence caste may 
be at present, it has for many centuries acted as an 
inexpensive system of police — political as well as 
moral — keeping its members in check, and restraining 



CASTE. 63 

them from lawlessness, with which no modern system 
can compare for efficiency. 

It has preserved a learned class among the people 
when learning was encouraged neither by state influ- 
ence nor by the great and wealthy, and when it would 
otherwise no doubt have fallen into utter decay. 

By strictly forbidding the use of intoxicating liquors, 
it has served India as an efficient prohibitory temper- 
ance law, and has kept the higher castes almost totally 
from drunkenness. 

It has made the Hindus contented with their lot — 
whether good or bad, high or low — and in doing so 
has provided a kind of universal happiness, which if 
not of the highest kind, was better than none. Even 
now as it is passing away and justly so, we have firm 
faith that the God of all mankind, who permitted this 
wondrous institution to grow up and flourish for thou- 
sands of years, will overrule it for good. 



64 EVERY-DA Y LIFE IN INDIA, 



YI. EDUCATION. 

The educational system of India is not of indige- 
nous growth but of foreign construction. It is fostered, 
not by the felt wants and aspirations of the people, but 
by external influences, supplied by the government and 
missionary societies. 

Its strongest efforts have been heretofore expended 
in the higher English education of a comparatively 
small number, while the masses have been scarcely at 
all affected, except as they have been called upon to 
pay the expenses. 

To stimulate the establishment of schools through- 
out the country, the government gives grants-in-aid, 
either by partially paying the salaries of teachers, the 
cost of buildings, etc., or by paying result grants regu- 
lated according to a fixed scale and based upon the 
yearly examinations passed by the pupils. The latter 
is best adapted to elementary schools, while institutions 
of a higher grade and more permanent character avail 
themselves of the former provision. Besides these 
aided schools there are numbers of strictly government 
schools and colleges established in places where pri- 
vate enterprise was not sufficient to meet what, in the 
eyes of the government, was considered the educational 
demand of the times. 

As a rule, the larger towns are well supplied with 



EDUCATION. 65 

schools, but throughout the villages the percentage of 
school children is very small. 

The school for a village of a thousand or more 
inhabitants consists generally of about a dozen or twen- 
ty boys — the sons of Brahmans and merchants — who 
learn to read, write and cipher in order that they may 
carry on the business which falls to their caste, but 
with little thirst for knowledge or aspiration beyond 
this. The thousands, ay, millions, of toiling farmers 
and coolies have not yet even an idea that book-knowl- 
edge could in any way contribute to their happiness or 
usefulness. 

It is with utter amazement that they listen to de- 
scriptions of the home-Hfe of farmers and day-laborers 
in Europe and America. That a farmer should spend 
his leisure hours in reading, or that a day-laborer should 
have, anything to do with books, is to them an incom- 
prehensible enigma. 

With them, and we may say with all classes in 
India, education is looked upon as a marketable com- 
modity. The farmer says, " How will reading and writing 
help my boys and girls to weed my fields and plant my 
corn ?" The merchant says, " I must teach my boys 
to read and write, so that they can keep accounts, but 
as for my girls, they have no such need." The modern 
Brahman says, " I must pass the examinations so that I 
may get a position under government." , 

Missionary societies have done something in the 
way of encouraging elementary education among the 
lower castes, and not a litde in stimulating both Eng- 



66 E VER Y'DA Y LIFE IN INDIA . 

lish and vernacular education among all classes; but 
until the people themselves acquire a thirst for knowl- 
edge, and seek it as a means of making themselves 
more useful and happy, we cannot look for the bene- 
ficial results which the well-meant schemes of govern- 
ment and missionary societies were expected to pro- 
duce. 

The passing of examinations is the Indian student's 
highest aim in life ; this -accomplished, his efforts to 
improve his mind are at an end. If he fails in this 
from year to year, as is often the case, he sinks in de- 
spondency and becomes a burden to himself and to his 
friends. If he succeeds, he holds those who educated 
him responsible to secure him a position. However 
difficult it may be for my readers to believe, it is a fact 
that the Indian student, after he has passed his exami- 
nation, counts himself grievously wronged if those who 
have helped him to his education do not also supply 
him with a means of making a living by it. "You 
have educated me ; now you must show me a suitable 
means of liveliliood," is a sentence with which govern- 
ment officials and missionaries are but too familiar. 

If such a youth could be referred to the farm or the 
workshop for the solution of his difficulty, the matter 
would be very much simplified, but such a suggestion 
would be considered as adding insult to injury. 

In India |he conception is deep rooted that manual 
labor is debasing and degrading, unworthy of one 
born of respectable parents, or of a low-born man if 
educated. 



EDUCATION, 69 

It will thus be seen that 

HIGHER EDUCATION 
in India is not without attendant evils and difficulties. It 
is a subject which has excited considerable interest both 
here and in England of late years, and we can perhaps 
do our readers no better service than to furnish them 
a few extracts from writers on the subject. 

In favor of the present system are of course all the 
general arguments which belong on the side of higher 
education as a means of progress and enlightenment. 
Its very presence shows that in the estimation of the 
government it is worthy of support, and by many soci- 
eties it is encouraged as an important department of 
missionary effort. 

It does not follow, however, that all government 
officials or all missionaries are heartily in favor of it. 
The first extract we give is from an able article in an 
English Review by H. J. S. Cotton, Esq., of the Indian 
Civil Service. 

" The narrow sphere in which alone the educated natives 
find it possible to move is dangerously over-crowded. The 
exigencies of a foreign government exclude them from 
holding the higher offices of state. Social prejudices, the, 
strength of which it is impossible to exaggerate, forbid them ' 
to resort to manual work. Numbers of young men yearly 
issue from our institutions who find that they can obtain 
neither practice in the law courts nor places in the public 
service. They look back on all the mental toil they have 
endured, and are chagrined in discovering that in but too 
many instances it leads to nothing-. This accounts mainly for 
the discontent and restlessness which are perceptible in the 
rising generation." 



70 EVERY'DA V LIFE IN INDIA. 

" It is evident in such a condition of things that the gene- 
ral sense of the population of the country is not prepared to 
acknowledge the priceless boon of education befittingly. The 
cry for compulsory education which rang through England and 
forced Parliament into action is a convincing proof— if one 
were needed — that there is among the people of the West a 
worthy instinct, a popular craving for educatian demanding 
satisfaction, and not an obstinacy requiring that it should be 
thrust upon them. An English artisan, who is not worn out by 
excessive toil, may, as well as the wealthy, indulge in intellec- 
tual pursuits throughout his life : he becomes in virtue of his 
acquirements a more useful member of the community in 
which he lives. In India this is not so. It is notoriously the 
case that when a poor peasant has been raised from his own 
position in society and taught to read, write, and to keep 
accounts, his hands forsake the hoe, the plough, and the fish- 
ing net, and he struggles through life, mayhap as a humble I 
scribe in the office of the village landholder, or as a hireling 
accountant or law agent, or he simply degenerates as often 
happens into a lazy and expensive encumbrance upon the 
other members of his family. There is no national demand 
for the spread of education. -€)ur efforts are premature. And 
in the meantime the injury we are likely to inflict on a poor 
and backward country by encouraging a distaste for manual 
labor is excessive. Already we have fostered an impression 
among our subjects that the office and the pen are nobler 
employments than the shop or plough, and that genteel pov- 
erty has a kind of inherent claim to be petted, and rewarded, 
and exalted above the honest sweat of the ryot or artisan." 

" A policy of inactivity is demanded in this crisis. It is 
the peculiar privilege of man to guide progress, to stimulate 
action, where necessary to refrain from interference. And 
from the government point of view a policy of inaction is 
often the most desirable." 

The next is from a native writer who has himself 
had the advantages of higher English education. 




EDUCATION 71 

In one of a series of articles in the " Madras Times,'' 
1879, he says: 

"Great hopes were entertained that higher education 
would make the people happier, wealthier, and more prosper- 
ous. Nothing can be a more deplorable delusion. In the 
history of all nations, wealth comes first, and then only learn- 
ing. Wealth gives a people leisure and comfort ; these again 
are employed on the improvement of taste and the cultiva- 
tion of the fine arts, literature and science. Why should the 
case be reversed in India ? Instead of enriching the country, 
higher education has just the opposite effect ; it impoverishes 
it. From time to time opinions to the following effect were 
announced in University Convocations before the graduates : 
' Ye scholars are possessed of extraordinary gifts and prodi- 
gious talents ; with those go and utilize the material resources 
of the country, which, for want of men like you, lie wholly 
useless.* Unfortunately those gentlemen who had the special 
privilege of uttering such nonsense entirely forgot the nature 
of the education that had been imparted to the graduates 
before them, and that the prodigies thus exhorted and liber- 
ally flattered were the very persons wholly incapacitated for 
the task both physically and by taste. 

" Higher education greatly demoralizes the people of this 
country instead of benefiting them. The ideas of religion and 
morality of our educated youths are known to us. This 
being out of place here I shall not touch upon them. Higher 
education has had the worst effects upon the mind and body 
of the pupils. As ' pass ' is the be-all and the end-all of the 
literary ambition of the Indian student, he is forced to sacri- 
fice his health and comfort before he could pass successfully 
through a series of rigid examinations in a foreign and diffi- 
cult tongue. Incessant drudgery, reading, pent-up rooms 
and midnight lamps weaken his system, which is not made of 
iron. He generally becomes weak or sickly, sometimes sink- 
ing into an untimely grave. 

" While the pressure of higher education has a depressing 



72 EVERY-DA Y LIFE IN INDIA. 

influence upon the constitution of our youths, it perverts their 
taste also. All their activity ends with their examinations, 
and then they sink into mental and bodily indolence. It is 
the Oriental fashion to think it very honorable to be free 
from manual labor, and the boasted enlightenment of West- 
ern learning without removing and improving this silly idea 
rather confirms and greatly extends it. If there were one 
man indolent from taste without higher education, there are 
now half a dozen men who are so with higher education. I 
am really curious to know what must be the fate of the host 
of students flocking to our schools and colleges. Almost 
every one of them is aspiring to become a collector or judge 
or lawyer. How can this be realized ? How is the govern- 
ment able to provide these men with employment, while the 
supply far exceeds the demand ? This aversion to physical 
labor was formerly the characteristic of only a small minority 
of the higher classes, but it now is greatly spreading among 
the lower classes also. The son of the trader, farmer, or 
manufacturer thinks it beneath his dignity to follow his father's 
profession, and would idly lounge and hang about public 
offices with an application for a vacant post with hundreds of 
others like himself. The evil arising from the annual increase 
of these hungry, disaffected office-hunters must, in course of 
time, grow to an alarming extent. Their situation is most 
deplorable. They reject their father's occupation, they are 
not able to help themselves, nor is there any possibility of 
others helping them. These intelligent but indolent men 
must be a great burden upon the country, society, and their 
relatives. All their intelligence and industry are wholly lost 
to the country." 

Our experience and observation incline us to fall in 
strongly with those who claim that the present need of 
India is in the line of trained farmers and mechanics 
rather than in that of idle mathematicians and discon- 
tented rhetoricians. 



EDUCATION, 73 

Encourage elementary education and industrial 
institutions, making the son of a potter a better potter, 
the son of a carpenter a better carpenter, and the son 
of a farmer a better farmer. A thousand times rather 
by judicious training turn a Brahman into a manual 
laborer than by higher book-education withdraw honest 
toilers from the farm and the workshop to swell the 
ranks of idle, useless, disappointed, " educated na- 
tives." 

FEMALE EDUCATION 

In India has made wonderful progress within the last 
few years. The old prejudice against it is fast dying 
away, and where ten years ago the very mention of a 
school for respectable girls was hooted, may now be 
seen caste girls by the score, if not by the hundred, 
wending their way with primer and slate in hand to 
the schoolroom. According to the latest published 
reports there are 21,000 girls, out of a total of 640,000 
pupils, in the schools of Bengal. In the Madras Presi- 
dency the proportion of girls in school is better yet, 
being 28,000 out of 280,000 pupils, or 10 per cent. 

The greatest obstacle in the way of female education / 
is the custom of child marriage, which withdraws the / 
girls from school just when they have begun to be 
interested in their studies. 



74 E VER Y-DA Y LIFE IN INDIA, 



YII. SCHOOLS AKD PUPILS. 

Passing along the streets of an Indian town which 
has been made a municipality, and has received the 
modern educational impetus, one hears at almost every 
corner a strange, buzzing, monotonous chorus of human 
voices — sounds which are not singing, chanting, talk- 
ing, nor any other common vocal performance, and yet 
the listener is convinced that the voices he hears are 
those of a company of boys. A few steps forward, or 
the turning of an angle in the street, will reveal to him 
the mystery, as he sees a score or two of Hindu boys 
squatting on the floor of a veranda or on the ground 
in an open shed. In their midst on a solitary chair 
sits a Brahman, or it may be, in these degenerate days, 
a man of lower caste, and the scene which he beholds 
is a " Result's Grant School." The buzzing noise was 
the "loud studying" of the pupils. This audible study- 
ing of Hindu pupils is a feature which it is almost 
impossible to banish from the schoolroom. . Even boys 
and young men in the higher classes will insist upon 
going over their history or philosophy lessons in a 
chanting, sing-song tone during study hours. 

The result of such a lip-study, as one might easily 
suppose, is learning by rote. For this, Hindu youths 
are famous. They have wonderful memories, and will 
prepare lessons by the book with remarkable facility. 
From the day they enter school at five or six years of 



SCHOOLS AND PUPILS, 75 

age, they begin to prepare for examinations. Every 
year the government school inspector examines them, 
and if they "pass," their teachers' ambition as well as 
their own is satisfied. 

As laid down in the government rules, the lowest 
standard includes : 

1. Vernacular Reading: a certain number of lessons 
in a prescribed book. 

2. Writing, in large hand, short words out of the 
reading-book. 

3. Arithmetic: Notation to thousands, easy Addi- 
tion, and the Multiplication Table to five times five. 
English figures to be used in all cases. 

This standard is generally passed the first or second 
year, and the grant to the teacher for every boy thus 
passed is two and a half rupees. 

The next higher standard includes as follows : 

1. Vernacular Reading: additional lessons in a pre- 
scribed book, and meanings of words to be given. 

2. Writing, from dictation, short sentences out of 
the reading-book. 

3. Arithmetic: Subtraction, Multiplication, and Di- 
vision. The Multiplication table to twelve times twelve. 

For every boy passed satisfactorily in this examina- 
tion, the teacher receives a government grant of four 
rupees. These grants, together with such fees as the 
teacher can get from his pupils make up his salary. 
For girls, the grants are somewhat more liberal, and 
they also receive an additional allowance for sewing. 
Except in the case of mission schools for lower castes, 



76 EVERY-DA Y LIFE IN INDIA. 

and of dancing-girls, who are not generally admitted 
into the respectable girls' schools, and must therefore 
resort to the boys' schools, there is no co-education of 
the sexes in India. 

Standards of study, ranging from the simple ones 
indicated above to the matriculation or university en- 
trance examination, are prescribed by the government 
and conscientiously adhered to by teachers and pupils. 
It will thus be seen that not only the immemorial cus- 
tom of " loud studying," but also the very system of 
instruction and examinations under which Hindu pupils 
are trained, tend to make them learn by rote. If any . 
youths in the whole world need a system to counteract 
this tendency, it is the Hindu youths, for perhaps in no 
others is originality so little developed by nature. 

The effects of this rote -system become ridiculously 
prominent in some of the answers which are yearly 
found in the matriculation examination papers. 

We give a few of the kind, taken from last year's 
list. These questions and answers show as well the 
defect of the system of examination as of the pupils. 

QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS. 
Question. What is a " dapper man "? 
Answer, ist. A man of superfluous knowledge. 

" 2d, A mad man. 

QuES. What is a " democrat " ? 
Ans. I St. Petticoat government. 
" 2d. Witchcraft. 
'' 3d. Half-turning of the horse. 



SCHOOLS AND PUPILS, 77 

QUES. Define " Babylonish jargon." 
Ans. ist. A vessel made at Babylon. 

" 2d. A kind of drink made at Jerusalem. 

" 3d. A kind of coat worn by Babylonians. 
QuES. What is meant by a " Lay Brother"? 
Ans. ist. A bishop. 

" 2d. A step-brother. 

" 3d. A scholar of the same godfather. 
QuES. Define the expression, '* Sumpter mule.'* 
Ans. a stubborn Jew. 
QuES. What is a " Bilious-looking fellow" ? 
Ans. ist. A man of strict character. 

" 2d. A person having a nose like the bill of an 
eagle. 

PETITIONS AND LETTERS. 
Many of these, from the English -learning school- 
boys, and petty officials, which find their way into the 
hands of Europeans, are curiosities of literature which 
attract considerable attention. Here is a specimen of 
which I was made the honored recipient some years 
ago: 

" Most Honorable Reverend : I hear that you are high 
noble man and there are none but you. As I am always en- 
gaged in business I never made your honor's visitation. 

" I pray your honor regarding a thing, viz.: My Priest came 
from Trichinopoly, that is to say Sreeraugam. If your honor 
please favor me your kindness, I shall be obliged to request 
you. My Priest is richest. The people say by usage that he 
is born to God, and also that he is the Son of God. 

*' He will not return to Guntoor until 30 years ; but I cannot 
sure say that I can alive until he comes. My main prayer is 



78 E VER Y-DA Y LIFE IN INDIA. 

to only photograph him upon the photograph. If your honor 
allow me to come to your presence; I shall be obliged to 
come to your presence, I request you only this assistance but 
none other. 

" Your most obedient scholar, 

"M. V. RAUGACHARLU. 
" 17th March, 1875." 

HIGH SCHOOLS. 

Besides the numerous elementary Result-schools 
above referred to, there are schools of a higher grade 
in all the principal towns where pupils prepare for the 
more difficult examinations and special tests, which, if 
passed, render them eligible to minor appointments 
under government as clerks, pleaders, teachers, etc. 

Comparatively few pursue the higher courses of 
studies prescribed by the Indian Universities, and which 
entitle them to the various literary degrees, as given in 
Europe and America. 

Within the last twenty years, in the Madras Presi- 
dency alone, 21,000 candidates for matriculation have 
been examined. In 1878, when the examinations were 
unusually severe, out of 2,500 applicants only 250, or 
10 per cent., passed. 

About half-a-dozen girls in various parts of India 
have also passed this examination, and have been 
highly applauded for their success by the friends of 
education from the Viceroy down. 

The Universities are turning out every year B. As. 
and M. As. by the hundred, and LL. Ds. by the score, 
and India no more than Europe, America, or China 
will hereafter be without tided literary men. 



SCHOOLS AND PUPILS. 79 

THE RELIGIOUS ATTITUDE 
Of the government schools in India has of late years 
been a subject of public discussion. In accordance 
with the general policy of the government these schools 
are neutral in matters of religion. It has been claimed, 
therefore, that while by introducing Western literature 
and science they destroy the faith of their pupils in 
Hinduism, they fail to give anything in its place, and 
thus strand them in infidelity and atheism. 

This non-religious feature is altogether new, and 
not entirely satisfactory to the Hindus themselves. 
The breaking up of old faiths and forms is not without 
attendant evils. A native writer speaks of it thus : 

" The defective systems of higher education and competi- 
tive examinations cause a subversion of all order and disci- 
pline in individual families, just as they do in society. Of late 
there has been a good deal of crimination and recrimination 
between the government and missionary educationists about 
the evil effects of higher education upon the rehgion and 
morality of native youths. The truth is that they both con- 
tribute to the same evil, but in different degrees. Generally 
speaking, all regard to age, sex, and religion, is passing away 
from educated youths. It is my painful experience that young 
men in my own immediate family circle are generally becom- 
ing addicted to new kinds of rascality arising from want of 
fear either of God or of man, while they share other frailties 
and vices equally with other men. They often mistake im- 
pertinence and impudence for courage and independence, 
and slanders and scandals for fair and generous criticism. 
Their treatment of their elders is revolting, their criticisms 
upon government are seditious, their remarks upon our vir- 
gins and matrons are most outrageous. They become dis- 
obedient to their parents, uncourteous to their seniors, and 
impertinent to their superiors." 



8o E VER Y'DA Y LIFE IN INDIA. 

Missionary societies, by keeping abreast with the 
educational movements, and teaching the Bible in all 
their schools, claim to supply the moral and religious 
instruction which government schools lack. 

Mission schools are also doing an excellent levelling 
work in admitting pupils from all castes. Legally, gov- 
ernment schools are obliged to do the same, but prac- 
tically the law is a dead letter. Unless specially looked 
after by a European, it would be utterly impossible for 
a low-caste boy to endure the persecution to which he 
would be subjected — passively on the part of the teach- 
ers, and actively on the part of the pupils — if he 
attempted to enter and retain a place in a government 
school where the teachers are all natives. 

So fiercely are the higher castes opposed, not only 
to associating with low-caste pupils, but to their being 
educated at all, that it is with the greatest difficulty we 
can obtain sites for Christian schools in the villages, if 
the high-caste people can throw impediments in our 
way. 

MARRIED PUPILS. 

A peculiar feature of Indian higher schools is that 
most of the pupils are married — many of them even >■ 
being fathers. This is an evil which in many ways 7 
interferes with their progress. We are glad to see that 
the evil is recognized, and that steps are being taken to 
remedy it. 

In Calcutta a meeting of upwards of four hundred 
students was lately held, at which the following resolu- 
tion was passed : 



SCHOOLS AND PUPILS. 8i 

"That in the interest of students, and with a view to pro- 
mote their welfare both as students and as men, this meeting 
resolves to organize a united movement among students to 
put down the pernicious custom of child-marriage." 

The pledge of membership proposed is as follows : 

"I hereby solemnly bind myself not to marry or allow 
myself to be given in marriage before I have attained the age 
of 21 years, my present age being — ." 

When evils of this nature are once felt by the class 
whom they affect, we may hope for speedy reform. 



lO 



82 EVERY-DA Y LIFE IN INDIA. 



YIII. THE OLD STYLE HIUDU SGHOOIx. 

Under the influence of the modern system of ex- 
aminations introduced by the government the old style 
Hindu school is fast passing away. The following 
description of this venerable institution is furnished by 
a Hindu and the engraving is from a painting. 

The exercises of the school are begun with an invo- 
cation to the god of wisdom. This having been sung, 
lessons are prescribed to the children which they learn 
by rote. 

The school is not divided into classes, but all the 
pupils are jumbled together and all simultaneously 
vociferate their various tasks, making a harsh, discor- 
dant jargon. If their roars grow faint, if their lips cease 
to move, the rod of the master falls on their backs. 

An hour before closing the school, the pupils are all 
made to stand up in a line; and with their hands 
applied to their hearts, they repeat the multiplication 
table, the alphabet, and the sacred hymns or slokas, at 
the end of each one of which their hands are raised to 
their foreheads and their bodies bowed in reverence to 
the god in whose honor it was said. The master then 
instructs them in a long and tedious catalogue of frivo- 
lous duties to be discharged in their houses, to which 
they all assent by loudly shouting, " Yes, yes." After 
this they prostrate themselves before the teacher and 
are dismissed to their respective homes. The teacher 



OLD STYLE HINDU SCHOOL. 85 

must be a Brahman. The wealthy and respectable will 
never condescend to have their children educated by 
one of a lower caste. 

The system of education practised in these schools 
is very defective, and the children make but little prog- 
ress ; they take a month or more to learn the alphabet, 
a year or two to learn to read and still longer to write. 
Much time is wasted also in learning useless arithmeti- 
cal tables. The master is slothful, and, like all Brah- 
mans, fond of sleeping by day. In the afternoon, after 
the boys have collected for work, he considers his 
duties over until five, and so indulges in a sound sleep. 
Meanwhile the pupils must get along as best they can, 
but the teacher must not be disturbed. It may be he is 
snoring furiously, but who will dare arouse him ? It 
may be he has chewed tobacco and drank bhang (the 
leaf of delusion) and is intoxicated, the eyes of the 
tyrant being closed and his frown relaxed. If so, the 
children make merry, their lessons are discarded, and 
all their attention is given to their prostrate master. 
Hisjuttu — long tuft of hair — is scattered over his bloated 
face, he snores in a stentorian tone, and his limbs are 
fantastically stretched out. The young critics about 
him are possessed of great and ready humor, and their 
remarks on his conduct and appearance are amusing in 
the extreme. 

But a change comes over the scene. The master 
awakes ; his eyes are red as fire and his hair dishevelled. 
He takes a glance over the schoolroom and is pleased 
to find that his pupils have kept their respective places 



86 E VER Y-DA Y LIFE IN INDIA. 

during the hours of his very refreshing sleep. In this 
way passes many an afternoon. The parents never 
think of inquiring after their child's progress. It is 
wholly and implicidy intrusted to the teacher. He 
sleeps when he ought to teach, and even when awake 
neglects his charge. He is a great chatterbox and 
wastes hours in idle gossip with idle caste-fellows. He 
is continually going out to dinner, when, giving the 
school into the charge of a boy, he runs to fill his 
stomach with cups of ghee, wheat-cakes, and sweetmeat 
dishes. Again, his wife has to perform some silly cere- 
mony, his daughter must be betrothed, or his son is to 
be initiated into the Brahmanical mysteries, or he must 
consult the stars, so the school is coolly closed, while he 
remains in his house to sleep away the day or to spend 
it in frivolity and feasting. 

The punishments inflicted on the children are various. 
For a slight fault they are beaten on the palm of the 
hand or are made to stand up and sit down a number of, 
times in succession, holding their ears with their hands. \ 
At other times they are made to stand for some time In 
a bent posture, holding the big toes with the hand, and 
when the fault is a grave one, a number of slates are put 
on the back of the offender while he is in this position. 
A pebble is also placed on his neck, and if by the 
slightest movement the slates fall or the pebble rolls off, 
the master's rod falls heavily on him. It Is a very cruel 
punishment. Others will not bear specification. 

The master is cruel and his character is stained with 
many other foul blots. His conversation is revolting in 



OLD STYLE HINDU SCHOOL. 87 

the extreme, every wicked expression disgraces his Hps, 
his most trivial statements are confirmed by some horrid 
oath, and the name of God Is invoked without awe to 
confirm the darkest Hes. Unsatisfied with the fees he 
gets from his pupils he shamefully filches their pocket- 
money on the flimsiest pretexts. His conscience does 
not sting him, for It is dead, and should a pupil refuse 
to slip a copper into his greedy hand, how cruel is his 
fate. 

Innocent recreation is denied to the children. The 
teacher considers play the road to beggary, and the 
parents agree with him. They are pleased when they 
see their tired children in the evening squatted in the 
veranda with folded arms, or sleeping in the cool 
garden, instead of running about and sporting among 
the branches of the banyans or climbing up into the 
shady mangoes. 

This is one reason why Hindus usually grow up so 
weak and indolent, preferring lying down to the easiest 
toil. Their luxuries are eating, drinking, and sleeping. 
The cruelty of the old-time Hindu schoolmaster has 
given rise to many curious proverbs, which make him 
the butt of ridicule and which are manifestly the pro- 
duction of children of intelligence and not of grown-up 
men. They are clever and amusing, but very few of 
them would admit of publication. 

The teacher's moral Influence upon his pupils Is very 
bad. They know him to be a liar, a swearer, a thief, 
and yet at the same time he is to be regarded also as a 
god. Whatever falls from his lips Is divine and is to be 



// 



/ 



88 EVERY-DA V LIFE IN INDIA. 

carefully stored in the memory. His actions, manners, 
tricks, conduct, and conversation are carefully imitated 
with pride by his pupils. The deceptions he practises 
on them they in turn practise on their brothers and 
sisters. 

The teacher, however, is great on the subject of 
caste — on what should be eaten, what abstained from, on 
idolizing the Brahmans and avoiding the Pariahs, on 
his genealogy, his rights, his privileges, and on the 
mean origin and low position of other castes. He is 
ever eloquent on the necessity of feeding, clothing, and 
sheltering Brahmans, and of subscribing to the marriage 
of their sons and daughters, and is ever mourning in 
melancholy terms that the native rule has departed and 
with it the Rajahs, who, supplying all the wants of the 
Brahmans, left them nothing to do but to eat, drink, 
and sleep. 



WOMEN. 89 



IX. WOMEU. 

Such extraordinary accounts of the condition of 
Hindu women have found their way into EngHsh print 
that the European new-comer's greatest surprise is to 
find them so much Hke their sisters in other parts of the 
world. He observes in them many of the graces, 
virtues, and whims which belong to women in European 
countries. Their complexion may be dark, their dress 
of a different style, and their jewelry not to our taste, 
but they have the same inborn longing for fine appear- 
ance and personal adornment which belongs to women 
wherever found. 

They are smaller and weaker, more timid and modest 
than the men; as girls they are shy and retiring; as 
mothers they are devoted to their children, and as 
wives they are helpful and true. Many of them are 
ground down with hunger, family cares and hard work. 
But few of them have ever learned to read, or have 
aspirations beyond their daily wants; and fewer still 
have any idea of what a salutary home-making influence 
lies dormant in their womanly natures. Still, they are 
not the slaves — the miserable victims of men and of 
gods — which our early reading led us to picture them. 
It is true that women do not receive that respect and 
consideration here which they meet with in European 
countries, but it does not follow that they are unhappy 
in consequence of the neglect. With them it is not 



90 E VER Y-DA Y LIFE IN INDIA. 

considered a neglect, and a sudden change of man- 
ners to such as we observe in the West would be as 
disagreeable to the women as it would be revolting to 
the men. Whatever changes in the social condition of 
Hindu women are really needed will gradually take 
place under the influence of increased popular intelli- 
geftce and the further spread of Christianity. Hasty 
change is to be deprecated, and it will probably be 
found that many of our Western ways and manners are 
no more suited to the tastes and requirements of the 
women of India than are high-heeled boots, fur caps, 
and black silk dresses. 

We have heard endless tales about the misery of 
being shut up in a zenana, but so far from considering 
it a misery it is the respectable Hindu woman's pride 
that she is secluded and not exposed to the gaze of all 
passers-by. It must be remarked here, too, that only 
a very small proportion of the women are confined to 
zenanas. The great mass of the people are Sudras 
and castes below these, and in general their women go 
and come with the same freedom as European women. 
They are seen, not only about their homes, but on the 
streets, in the market-place, and in the fields. 

The comparatively few who are confined to secluded 
homes consider their lot a very exalted one, removed 
above the commgn drudgery and the public gaze. 
Occasionally, to make a show of great respectability, 
native women who have never been secluded, when 
visited by European ladies pretend that they are not 
allowed to be seen. 



WOMEN, 93 

Notwithstanding all that may be urged against such 
a system of seclusion, and we admit that from our 
point of view there are many serious objections to it, it 
is a question whether India is not better off with it than 
without it. Of one thing we are quite sure, that if Eu- 
ropean ladies had to live in the midst of a closely- 
packed Hindu town, the very first "improvement" 
asked for would be to raise yet higher the walls whfch 
separate them from the dust and clatter of the streets 
and the idle, vulgar gaze of the public. Although to 
the Hindu mind the seclusion of the zenana has other 
uses and advantages, there can be no doubt that one of 
the causes which originally led to its introduction was 
the natural desire of Brahman women for privacy, for a 
place where they might be free from the profane stare 
and the idle remarks of their low-caste neighbors. 

Instead of having degraded woman, the seclusion of 
the zenana has preserved to India a degree of womanly 
timidity and modesty, and of respect for woman, which 
is very desirable. 

To compare the intellectual status of Indian women 
with that of European w^omen and ascribe the defect to 
the zenana system, is folly. The comparison must be 
between zenana women and others in India and the only 
question to be decided is whether India, with all the cir- 
cumstances taken into consideration, is better or worse 
off for this system. We have dwelt somewhat at length 
upon this point because it has been and is yet the 
thoughtless fashion to speak without measure of the 

evils of the Hindu zenana system. As a rule, 
II 



94 E VER Y'DA Y LIFE IN INDIA, 

HINDU WOMEN ARE IN SUBJECTION TO THEIR 
HUSBANDS, 

Though here, as in other countries, there are not want- 
ing instances of husbands who are in thorough subjec- 
tion to their wives. On this point the sacred books are 
very clear. The Padma Puran Shaster says, 

•"A woman has no other god on earth but her husband. 
The most excellent of all the good works she can perform is 
to gratify him with the strictest obedience." 

" Her husband may be crooked, aged, infirm, offensive in 
his manners. Let him also be choleric, dissipated, irregular ; 
a drunkard, a gambler, a debauchee. Suppose him reckless 
of his domestic affairs, even agitated like a demon. Let him 
live in the world destitute of honor. Let him be deaf or 
blind. His crimes and his infirmities may weigh him down, 
but never shall his wife regard him otherwise than as her god. 
She shall serve him with all her might ; obeying him in all 
things, spying no defects in his character, giving him no cause 
for disquiet." 

" When in the presence of her husband a woman must not 
look on the one side and on the other. She must keep her 
eyes on her master to be ready to receive his commands. 
When he speaks, she must be quiet and listen to nothing be- 
sides." 

" Let all her words, her actions, and her deportment give 
open assurance that she regards her husband as her god. 
Then shall she be honored of all men, and be praised as a 
virtuous and discreet woman." 

The famous laws of Manu teach in like manner, and 
in scarcely less forcible language, the subjection of 
wives to their husbands. 

Practically, Hindu wives do not regard their hus- 



WOMEN. 95 

bands as "gods," but they have a profound regard for 
them — a regard which is founded upon fear and custom 
more than upon love and respect. 

Even a low-caste woman will speak of her husband 
as " the lord," " the master," " he," and " him," but 
never mention his name. In the Christian marriage 
ceremony it is with much coaxing and persuading that 
we can get the bride to say," I, Sarah, take thee, Abra- 
ham, to be my wedded husband." "I, Sarah, take 
thee — " then comes a hesitation which is exceedingly 
difficult to get over. 

Even in reading a verse of Scripture in which the 
husband's name occurs, the wife will hesitate and betray 
a timidity in pronouncing it. 

Although the Hindu sacred writings are rather hard 
on women, and have made a deep impression upon the 
national mind, the laws of humanity which God has 
written upon every heart, and the practical require- 
ments of daily social and domestic life have greatly 
modified the application of the written laws. 

Neither must it be supposed that nothing touching 
or beautiful about women is found in those ancient 
Sanskrit records. Even in regard to the names of 
women, Manu says, " They should be agreeable, soft, 
clear, captivating the fancy, auspicious, ending in long 
vowels, resembling words of benediction." 

The Mahabharatha says : 

" A wife is half the man, his truest friend, 
A loving wife is a perpetual spring 
Of virtue, pleasure, wealth ; a faithful wife 
Is his best aid in seeking heavenly bliss ; 



96 E VER Y-DA V LIFE IN INDIA, 

A sweetly-speaking wife is a companion 

In solitude, a father in advice, 

A mother in all seasons of distress, 

A rest in passing through life's wilderness." 

Another writer says : 
" A mother exceeds in value a thousand fathers." 

The foulest slander ever conceived against any por- 
tion of the human family is the intimation too often 
seen in English print, that Hindu women, as a class, 
are devoid of virtue and unfaithful to their husbands. 
Here as elsewhere, the women are more faithful to the 
marriage tie than the men, and we can not but think 
that some European writers have widely under-estimated 
the standard of morality in India in this respect. Amid 
the general wreck of truth and uprightness in India, 
God has wonderfully preserved the sacredness of the 
family relation. 

For this let all the well-wishers of this great land be 
thankful. In this the Christian reformer will find the 
foundation for Christian homes. These are what the 
women of India need to give them a nobler happiness, 
a wider influence, and an opportunity for the healthful 
development of those womanly graces and virtues which 
they hold by nature in common with women in other 
lands. 



MARRIAGE. 97 



X. MARRIAGE. 

Marriage, among Hindus, is the greatest of all 
social and religious events. To make a brilliant display 
upon the marriage of their children, is the Hindu pa- 
rents' highest ambition. To accomplish this they fre- 
quently involve themselves and their families in debt 
for the remainder of their lives. 

Neither in the making of these debts nor in the 
selection of their partners, have the bride and groom — 
who are but children — any say, although they too often 
have to bear the unfortunate consequences of both. 

While marriage is the most brilliant occasion of a 
Hindu's life, it is only one of a series of religious cere- 
monies, all of which are equally binding. 

A full account of the various performances in con- 
nection with all of these would form not only a very 
long, but also a very tedious chapter, and would weary 
and confuse, rather than instruct the reader. Especially 
would this be the case with the five-days' marriage 
ceremony. Omitting, therefore, foreign words and use- 
less repetitions, we give a brief account of them, such 
as may furnish our readers a clear idea without taxing 
their patience. 

PRELIMINARY CEREMONIES. 
The first ceremony is that of receiving the child into 
his caste. It is performed either on the day of his 



98 E VER Y'DA Y LIFE IN INDIA, 

birth, or on the eleventh day after. It consists of touch- 
ing the child with the hand, and making an offering of 
bran and mustard-seed to the god of fire. The second 
ceremony is that of giving the child a name. A child 
is named in three ways: i. By the star under which it 
is born ; 2. By the month in which it is born ; 3. By a 
local name by which the child is usually called. This 
ceremony is to take place on the eleventh day. 

The third ceremony is performed the day on which 
the child begins to eat solid food. 

The fourth ceremony is that of tonsure or shaving 
the head. It takes place in the third year and is per- 
formed as follows : The Brahman priest touches the 
head of the child with Cusa grass five times, that is, on 
each side, on the back, the front and the top, after 
which an offering is made to fire, and the child's head 
is shaved except a tuft of hair on the back of it. 

The fifth ceremony is that of putting on the sacred 
thread. It is performed in the eighth year, and by it 
the boy becomes a " twice-born one ;" and after this 
ceremony he is considered a pure Brahman and fit to 
engage in all religious performances. It is as follows : 
The boy is shaved, a wire is placed in his ear preparatory 
to an ear-ring; he is bathed, and the "sacred" cotton 
thread is put around his body over the shoulder by his 
parents, or, in their absence, by some near relative who 
is entided to take their place. Offerings are made to 
the gods, texts from the Vedas are repeated, and vari- 
ous other religious acts performed, the whole extending 
over four days. It concludes, as ought all orthodox 



MARRIAGE. 99 

ceremonies, with a feast to Brahmans. The sixth cere- 
mony, and the one on which concentrate the greatest 
interest, attention and expense, is that of 

MARRIAGE. 

An auspicious wedding-day, having been selected, 
the previous day is set apart for a ceremony of the 
bridegroom, which indicates that he has completed 
certain studies of the Vedas since he received the 
sacred thread. Offerings are made to fire, and the 
locks of hair which were supposed to be left standing 
at the five places on his head at the former ceremony, 
are removed. 

Then follows a make-believe performance, in which 
the bridegroom pretends to be seeking for a bride, and 
as he finds none, prepares himself to go to the sacred 
river Ganges. Then a friend of his comes forward 
with a promise that he will give his sister or daughter 
in marriage to him. The bridegroom then stops the 
preparation for his journey to the Ganges and says he 
is ready for the wedding. A few hours before the mar- 
riage, the bridegroom's father sends a beautiful cloth 
for the bride and one for some other person in the 
house. This is the conclusion of the betrothal. 

The bridegroom then sets out with all his male rela- 
tives and friends and marches in brilliant procession to 
the house of the bride. After he has been received, 
the bridegroom and the bride are seated in the midst of 
the assembly on a wooden stool made for the occasion. 

The family priests of both parties and other aged 



lOO E VER Y-DA Y LIFE IN INDIA, 

and learned men then repeat a number of texts from 
the Vedas, and also the names of the ancestors of the 
bride and bridegroom. 

After this, the bride's father, or whoever gives her 
away, washes the feet of the bridegroom with water 
and milk. 

A yoke is then brought and is caught by two men 
and held above the head of the bride, while the bride- 
groom repeats a few texts from the Vedas and pours 
some water on her head. 

Then follows the tying on of the tali or marriage 
badge. This is a thin circular piece of gold tied to a 
string and worn around the neck. It is first passed 
around, and all the guests touch it, wishing happiness 
and prosperity to the young couple. The husband 
then ties it to the neck of the bride, while he repeats, 

" I tie this to your neck ; 
It is the sign of my life ; 
May you, too, have long life." 

Then two large plates of rice are brought, which 
the family priest takes ; and while he repeats sacred 
texts, he puts the rice, first into cocoanut shells and 
then upon the heads of the bride and the bridegroom. 
The cloths of the bride and the bridegroom are then 
tied together and while the family priest is repeating 
sacred texts, they make offerings to fire. On the even- 
ing of the first day of the marriage, while another ofTering 
is made to the gods, the bride and the bridegroom walk 
around the fire and in seven steps come to a certain 
stone which they together touch with their feet. This 



MARRIAGE, loi 

is a symbol that they are to live together until death. 
These are the principal parts of the ceremony performed 
on the first of the five days over which the marriage 
extends. 

In the main the rest of the performances consist in 
offerings to the gods, repeating sacred texts, distribu- 
ting food and money to Brahmans, and marching along 
the streets in brilliant processions. Every part of the 
ceremony has a meaning, and many of the rites, togeth- 
er with their interpretations, are very appropriate and 
interesting. 

This is the first and principal marriage, and takes 
place while both bride and groom are very young. 
After a number of years when they go to live together 
as husband and wife, another marriage ceremony, ex- 
tending over three days, follows, which is very much 
like this one, though less showy and expensive. 

The above description answers more particularly 
to the marriage ceremonies as observed by Brahmans. 
Among low-caste people, also, marriage is made a great 
occasion, but it is attended with less brilliancy and 
fewer rites. 

Marriage takes place only between persons of the 
same caste, and frequently only within very limited 
family circles. Between uncles and nieces and between 
first-cousins marriages are very common, much to the 
detriment of the Hindu nation. 

As marriage is considered a necessary religious 
ceremony, such classes of persons as bachelors and 
maids are unknown in India. Only such adults as are 

12 



I02 E VER Y-DA Y LIFE IN INDIA. 

greatly deformed or hopelessly diseased remain unmar- 
ried. Even lepers who are betrothed before the dis- 
ease develops extensively, hold their partners to their 
marriage vows, becoming even in some cases parents of 
a family of children who in turn inherit their parents' 
misery and imprudence. We have seen very sad cases 
of healthy women bound for life to loathsome leper 
husbands. If on the other hand the wife should be- 
come, after marriage, a loathsome leper, the husband 
would probably desert her and go to some distant 
village. 

The tali or marriage badge which every woman 
wears while her husband lives, proclaims her at once 
and everywhere as a married woman and as having 
a protector. It also insures her attention and respect 
where a woman without the tali might receive neither. 

WIDOWS. 

The widow's lot in India is still a hard one, but it 
does not seem to be so miserable as formerly. Wid- 
ow-burning has long since been prohibited by law, 
and to the present generation of Indian youths such an 
act would seem as cruel and revolting as to us. 

Among the higher castes, widows may still be 
known by their shaved heads and plain attire, but many 
of the hard restrictions relating to eating and social 
intercourse seem to have been relaxed. Among the 
lower castes the restrictions are still less" noticeable, and 
frequently the only distinctive mark of a widow is the 
absence of her marriage badge. 




^t^^^.^ 



MARRIAGE, 105 

Educated natives in many parts of India are putting 
forth efforts to break down the popular sentiment 
against widow marriage. Associations for this purpose 
have been formed in the larger cities, and in Western 
India a number of such marriages have recently taken 
place. Among native Christians they are not un- 
common. 

BLUSHING BRIDES. 

It is considered the proper thing for a bride — we 
speak now of adult marriages — to feign great timidity 
and even grief during the marriage ceremony. If she 
can gracefully burst into tears, all the better. That it 
is only a matter of form and not of feeling, the follow- 
ing case illustrates. 

We recently had an application for a bride from a 
widower of a neighboring mission. The applicant, as 
usual, left the matter of choice entirely to us. He had 
no objection to taking a widow, provided she was 
"strong, industrious, and willing to help on the farm 
when necessary." We knew of just such a woman — 
Rachel, a Christian widow of thirty summers — living 
in a village twenty miles to the east of us. 

We sent her a message to which she replied inperson 
post haste, having walked the whole distance on a sin- 
gle march. Notwithstanding the promptness with which 
she appeared and which rather indicated an interest in 
the project on hand, Rachel presented herself before us 
with a sad countenance. When we playfully suggested 
to her that this was a time for joy rather than for sor- 
row, her grief became uncontrollable and she burst into 



Io6 EVERY-DA Y LIFE IN INDIA. 

a flood of tears. She was not utterly inconsolable, 
however, and within a month the wedding was over 
and with a light heart she left us for her new home. 
Widow marriages, and even adult marriages, are yet 
the exception in India — being confined principally to 
native Christians and Mohammedans. 
The pernicious system of 

CHILD-MARRIAGE. 

with its attendant evils is yet prevalent, though there 
are not wanting signs of uneasiness and at least of a 
desire for improvement in this respect among educated 
natives. We are not prepared to say that child-mar- 
riage has not served also a good purpose in preventing 
temptations to immorality among the weak and igno- 
rant, but this advantage, if ever it may be put to its 
credit, counts but little in offsetting the enormous evils 
which the system has brought upon India. In the first 
place, and what strikes us as most unfair as well as 
unwise, is the binding together for life of two persons 
who themselves have had no voice in the matter. 
Such a bond of union may by external means be made 
strong, but it is not likely to be tender. Until husbands 
and wives in India are allowed some choice in the 
selection of life partners, we need not look for that dear 
and sacred family relation which is so well known and 
so highly prized in Christian lands. 

Early marriages are the most formidable obstacle in 
the way of female education. Just as girls become 
interested in school instruction they are removed, and 



MARRIAGE, 107 

their attention is taken up with home and family cares. 
The same is true to a great extent with the education 
of boys and young men. At a time when their whole 
attention ought to be given to mental training, they 
become entangled in family and parental cares which 
seriously affect their progress. So serious has this 
disadvantage become in this age of schools -and test 
examinations that students' unions have been formed to 
repress the custom of early marriage. 

As a result of the early marriage system there are 
in India innumerable fathers and mothers who are mere 
children themselves, and lack the ripe judgment and 
good sense needed to train children. Their offspring 
are weak and feeble in both body and mind, while the 
unfortunate child-mothers are frequently ruined in 
health and become prematurely old. 

This system is also responsible for a large proportion 
of the unhappy widows of India. Should the boy- 
husband die after the marriage ceremony has been per- 
formed, his young wife becomes a widow it may be at 
the age of six or seven years. Henceforth her life is 
at best one of sorrow, drudgery, and disappointment. 

DIVORCE. 

Divorce among the higher castes is unknown. A 
Brahman may refuse to live with his wife and may put 
her away, but he will not consider himself free or irre- 
sponsible for her support. 

Among the lower castes there are many separations 
which virtually amount to a divorce. The divorce 



io8 EVERY-DA Y LIFE IN INDIA. 

suits in such cases are very simple. The dissatisfied 
parties appear before the village puyichyat or " council 
of five," and if both parties are agreed to a separation 
the wife gives back to the husband her marriage badge. 
This done in the presence of witnesses is sufficient and 
final. If, however,- either of the parties is not present 
or objeets to the separation, reasons for it are heard 
and considered by the village officials in connection 
with the punchyat, and if granted a "writing of 
divorcement" is given. Divorces are not frequent. 
One check to them is the expense which has to be 
incurred in another marriage. 

If a young wife after betrothal, but before joining 
her husband, chooses to elope with another man, the 
matter is generally settled by paying' the deserted 
husband a sum of money equal to that which he spent 
on the marriage. The marriage expenses more than 
the wife seem to form the basis of grief in such cases, 
as also in those where a young wife dies. Many 
times have we had bereft husbands come to us with 
a mournful complaint like this : " Behold, sir, my first 
wife died before she joined me, and now my second 
wife has left me and gone away with another man. 
Here I am a poor man, having had to pay two mar- 
riage expenses, and yet I have no wife. Please sir, 
show me how I can make this man who took away 
my wife give me back the money I spent on her mar- 
riage. Had I that money I might marry again." 



CHILD LIFE. 109 



XI. CHILD LIFE. 

One of the most interesting things to the traveller — 
if he be a lover of the little folks — is the observation of 
national traits in the children of various countries. Al- 
though the doings of children throughout the world 
have more similarity in them than the habits and cus- 
toms of adults, yet there are exceedingly interesting 
differences in the performances of groups of youngsters 
in Central Park, New York, Hyde Park, London, the 
Champ Elysees, Paris, and the bazaar of a Hindu 
town. The close observer will have no difficulty in 
detecting the frank American, the staid Englishman, 
the gay Frenchman, and the mild Hindu, even in their 
infantile representatives. 

The Hindu child possesses in a remarkable degree 
that patience for which the nation is noted. To call 
it apathy, in both parents and child, were perhaps 
unkind, at least ungracious. Let that be as it may, 
patience or apathy, the Hindu child even as an infant 
possesses it to a marvellous extent. All day long will the 
poor coolie woman's child cling to her hips — tired, 
hungry, and sleepy — but seldom will you hear from it 
a murmur of complaint or fretfulness. 

The Hindu baby will lie for hours on a hard cot in 
a dingy room, tormented by flies and mosquitoes, 
supremely contented apparently, in the contemplation 
of its dusky litde hands. The good-naturedness of 



I lo EVERY-DA Y LIFE IN INDIA. 

Hindu babies is a matter of remark among European 
ladies in India, and I take great pleasure in adding my 
own favorable testimony to this very important sub- 
ject. 

For the boys and girls, too, I have a good word. 
They have a joyous, innocent look and a frank behav- 
ior which makes us love them. Their unfortunate 
surroundings, however, soon rob them of both, and 
with the years, come a coarse, sensual look and a de- 
ceitful behavior which make us wish they might always 
remain children. 

" Heaven lies about us in our infancy ! 
Shades of the prison-house begin to close 
About the growing boy." 

Hindu children are timid and, as a rule, respectful 
to their elders, obedient to their parents, and well- 
behaved in public. They are less active and boisterous 
than European children. The boys do not engage so 
freely in outdoor sports, and among the girls such rec- 
reations are almost unknown. 

Those who have an opportunity to go to school 
learn readily. In subjects which require the use of 
memory they excel, and the facility with which they 
" learn by heart" is surprising. In all intellectual work 
the children of those who have in past generations 
belonged to the learned class are much more ready than 
those of the illiterate castes, but even among Pariah 
boys there are some with extraordinarily bright minds. 

Hindu parents are 



CHILD LIFE. Ill 

FOND OF THEIR CHILDREN. 

Though they like the boys better, it does not follow 
that they dislike the girls. The disappointment which 
is felt at the birth of a daughter is not so much because 
it is a daughter as because it is not a son. It i^ not 
that they like the daughters less, but that they like the 
sons more. 

A boy is the Hindu parents' greatest earthly delight. 
The boy it is who will support them in old age, who 
will kindle the sacred fire when their bodies are con- 
sumed, and who, after they are gone, will minister to 
their departed spirits and hasten their entrance into a 
better state. Children are always spoken of as the 
special gift of God, and to be childless is considered a 
grievous misfortune. 

THE HARDSHIPS OF POOR CHILDREN. 

The mortality among the children of the poorer 
classes is very great. Their food is of the coarsest kind 
and often utterly unfit for human consumption. During 
times of scarcity we have known poor children to sub- 
sist for months on wild roots and berries, the pith of 
corn and millet stalks, a few raw heads of grain, and an 
occasional bowl of bran and water. As a consequence 
of insufficient and Improper food the children of the 
lower castes have a lean, pinched appearance, and are 
generally very small for their age. 

Among them the use of soap and water is also 
shamefully neglected, rendering not only their appear- 
ance unsightly and their presence disagreeable, but sub- 
13 






112 EVERY-DA Y LIFE IN INDIA, 

jecting them also to numerous kinds of skin diseases 
which must often make their very existence a burden. 

THEIR CLOTHING. 
As for clothing, none whatever is thought necessary 
for children under seven or eight years of age. It does 
not seem to have entered the mind of even well-to-do 
Hindus that a certain amount of clothing might not be 
out of place even on small children simply for decency's 
sake. It is no rare sight to see children — boys and 
girls — whose sole clothing consists of a necklace, a 
charm, and a string around the waist with a few bells 
attached. One of their proverbs says, 

" Children and the legs of a stool do not feel cold." 

So far as the climate in most parts of India is con- 
cerned, there is only a small portion of the year when 
clothing is really necessary as a protection against the 
cold ; but even at this time the children are often cruelly 
neglected. It is no uncommon thing to see parents well 
wrapped up while their unprotected children are shiver- 
ing with cold. When remonstrated with, they say, 
** Oh, children do not feel the cold." 

Children of the wealthier classes are often dressed in 
gorgeous silks and covered with valuable jewels. Gold 
coins of all kinds, English, French, and American, as 
well as their native coins, are in great demand and are 
strung together as necklaces. I have counted as many 
as fifty " Sovereigns" and " Napoleons" on the necklace 
of boys not more than ten or twelve years old. The 



CHILD LIFE. 115 

silly custom of loading down small children with valu- 
able jewelry leads to many cases of kidnapping and 
child-robbery. The poisoning or otherwise 

KILLING OF CHILDREN 
as a mode of revenge, is not unknown in India. We 
have known several such instances. In one case a child 
was deliberately thrown down a well by a woman who 
had a petty quarrel with its father. Recently two chil- 
dren were brought to the Guntoor Hospital who had 
been poisoned out of revenge. 

Infanticide prevails to some extent in all countries, 
and India is no exception. It is to be doubted, however, 
whether this sinful practice is as rife here as in some 
Western countries. As for the offering of children to 
the gods, throwing them to crocodiles, hanging them 
out in baskets, etc., we have never either heard or seen 
anything of it. We do not say that such things have 
never taken place in India, or that they may not even 
now occasionally occur in certain places, but we are 
quite sure that they have always been the exceptions 
rather than the rule, and that they have received their 
full share of attention on the part of European writers. 

The most cruel treatment of children which we have 
ever seen in India, or which could well be imagined, 
consisted in starving them during the late famine. 
Many children were subjected to extreme privation by 
heartless wretches who claimed to be their parents, and 
who hoped by this fiendish process to gain a comfort- 
able livelihood for themselves. 



Il6 EVERY-DA Y LIFE IN INDIA. 

Strong men and women, who were able to earn a 
livelihood for themselves and those dependent upon 
them at the government relief-works, wandered about 
the country carrying miserable skeletons of children 
whom they thrust into your presence to excite your 
sympathy. Others were instructed in pitiful stories of 
distress, which they were told to repeat before the 
European houses and in the market-place. Children of 
eight or ten years old would rush up to you and, with 
tears streaming down their cheeks, declare that both 
their father and mother had died of cholera along the 
way while they were in search of work and food ; that 
now they were left utterly helpless and must die in the 
streets unless they could get help. 

If you felt very compassionate towards the " poor 
little things" and offered to place them in an orphanage 
or send them to the relief-camp, they replied that they 
would be only too glad to come, but first they must go 
and get a bundle which they had left under a tree by 
the roadside. If you felt less concerned for their future 
welfare and sent them away with a silver coin, they were 
exceedingly happy, and so were their parents, who were 
anxiously awaiting in some concealed place, the result 
of the painful story which they had put into their chil- 
dren's mouths. 

We could wish that lessons of deceit on the part of 
parents to their innocent children were confined to the 
late famine. This kind of training, on a smaller scale 
and in a milder form, is, alas, too common among all 
classes. Truthfulness, honesty, and uprightness, are 



CHILD LIFE, 117 

lessons which are not sufficiently impressed upon the 
children of India. The parents, by precept and example, 
with sadly few exceptions, teach them directly the 
reverse. 

The home training of the young is very deficient, 
and the lessons of deceit, strife, selfishness, hatred, and 
indecency learned there are not easily counteracted by 
schools and churches, except as these gradually reform, 
elevate, and purify the whole family, and give that 
sacredness to home which is known only in Christian 
lands. 



1 18 EVERY-DAV LIFE IN INDIA, 



XII. MEDICIUE AHD THE SICK. 

The knowledge of medicine has been of all studies 
the most neglected by the Hindus. Several circum- 
stances combined to render scientific investigation on 
this subject unpopular. There were, first, the errone- 
ous teachings of the Shasters in regard to the constitu- 
tion of the human body ; and although the knowledge 
of the senses might flatly contradict the " written law," 
yet to propagate the truth would be to incur such dis- 
pleasure and persecution as Hindus are but little able 
to bear. If we are surprised at this, we can find even 
more wonderful instances of the same in connection with 
the development of medical science in countries farther 
west. 

The Hindus' objection to bleeding the living, and 
their horror of touching the dead, have also operated 
against medical research in India. 

The deeply-rooted idea of Fate — that "a man will 
die when his time comes" — has also paralyzed and does 
still paralyze all efforts at medical reform and sanitary 
regulations. Under all these adverse circumstances, 
the neglected state of medical science and the lav/s of 
health is not much to be wondered at. 

We do not say that the natives of India have no 
effective cures whatever for diseases. By experience 
they have learned that certain medicines relieve certain 
diseases, but of human physiology and anatomy native 



MEDICINE AND THE SICK, 119 

doctors know absolutely nothing, and their doctoring is 
nothing more than vague experimenting, which is in 
most cases either useless or disastrous to the unfortu- 
nate patient. The medicines employed by them are often 
of the most dangerous kinds, and we have seen num- 
berless cases of patients who were hopelessly ruined by 
vile drugs which had not the least bearing upon the 
diseases for which they were administered. Crude mer- 
curjr is a great favorite with them, and its victims may 
be counted by the score in almost every community. 

DOCTORS 
abound. Every second man is willing to be consulted 
as a healer of the body, to take a fee, and prescribe a 
remedy. 

The pretension of curing diseases by means of 
charms and " powwowing," or mantram-saying, is uni- 
versal, and as a natural result the priests are also doc- 
tors. The profession is, however, by no means con- 
fined to them. Everybody else who is either too lazy 
or too stupid to succeed in other employments can, as 
a last resort, set himself up as a doctor ! 

Next to the mysterious charms and mantrams, 

DIETING, 
or, rather, we should say, starvation, holds the most 
honorable place in the Hindus' practice of medicine. 

Fevers, especially, are starved away. The cure is 
certain, too, because when one of these skilful doctors 
has once been called and the patient delivered to him, 



1 20 E VER Y-DA Y LIFE IN INDIA . 

he will prescribe starvation, starvation, starvation, for 
three, four, seven, eleven, or even twenty days ! If, 
meanwhile, the poor patient dies from sheer exhaus- 
tion, as is not unfrequently the case, it is not for a mo- 
ment to be suspected that it was the cure which killed 
him. Had he but lived a few days longer, the wise 
doctor would certainly have triumphed over the fever. 

During confinement women are also cruelly starved. 
For three days after the delivery of the child the mother 
is not allowed to take a particle of food, and should 
there be the least symptom of fever, the starvation is 
kept up a much longer time. 

We have known of such cases where food was with- 
held for eleven days. In one special instance the resi- 
dent British physician and other European friends used 
every effort to induce the parents and husband of the 
young mother to give her food. Suitable food was sent 
to the house with instructions for giving it, the poor 
patient begged with all the strength she had for only a 
single mouthful, the European physician declared that 
nothing ailed the woman but want of nourishment ; yet 
so obstinately did the parents, backed by their native 
doctor, cling to their superstitious views, that for thir- 
teen days and nights they starved that poor, weak 
young mother of only sixteen years ! She had become 
delirious, and was scarcely able to speak above a whis- 
per, and it was only with the greatest care and the ap- 
plication of gentle tonics that she was gradually restored 
again. 

The dieting idea has been so deeply rooted in the 



MEDICINE AND THE SICK. I2i 

native mind that it is almost impossible to expel it or to 
replace it by anything more reasonable. 

Give a man a sticking-plaster for a sore on his foot, 
and after he has carefully applied it, he will ask you 
with unfeigned gravity, "What about diet?" The 
same important question has been asked of me times 
without number after such critical operations as apply- 
ing a few drops of glycerine for earache, a littie ammo- 
nia for toothache, soap -liniment for a sprain, or a cold- 
water bandage for a trifling wound. 

Burning with a hot iron is another cure, second in 
importance only to dieting. The two may and often do 
go together, and there is scarcely a man, woman, or 
child, to be found who cannot show upon the face, 
breast, or other parts of the body, the permanent scars 
of the burning-iron. 

THE SUPERSTITIOUS NOTIONS 
connected with the cure of diseases are of the most di- 
verse and surprising kinds. Not long ago a Brahman 
came running after me as I was riding through a vil- 
lage, and asked me for medicine for what I thought 
from his description might be dyspepsia. I told him I 
had no medicine with me just then, but that in a week 
or so I should come that way again, when I would 
bring him some. When I returned the next week he 
came running to my tent, and with great joy informed 
me that the very co7iversation which I had with him had 
cured his disease y and he was now well again. 

The idea seems to be prevalent that there is some 
14 



122 EVERV-DAV LIFE IN INDIA. 

efficacy transmitted from and through the person who 
gives the medicine, and for this reason people have 
often begged me to give them the medicine with my 
own hands, instead of sending it or intrusting the giving 
to some native assistant. 

As a rule, natives have the utmost confidence in the 
medical knowledge and skill of missionaries. Hun- 
dreds of them will take medicine and instruction from 
us who would rather die than go to one of the public 
hospitals which have been so kindly established by the 
government, and where European physicians are in 
attendance. The same medicines which, by personal 
attendance, they can obtain free at the hospitals, they 
will buy of us ; and no better test of a Hindu's sincerity 
can be devised than to make him pay for what he asks. 

In our travels through the villages we are thronged 
with applicants for medicine. Old people, blind from 
their birth, hope to receive their sight; the deaf ask us for 
medicine to restore their hearing ; and diseases of many 
years' standing it is supposed may be cured by a day or 
two of treatment. Whatever medicine we give them they 
take without hesitation, but when we advise them to go 
to the hospital, they put on a doubtful look, and gen- 
erally remark, " Why not die at home ?" 

The reason for their prejudice against the hospital 
cannot lie in the treatment which they receive there, for 
under the supervision of European physicians these in- 
stitutions are generally most carefully managed. One 
part of their objection arises from caste prejudice ; and 
another, though a most unreasonable one, comes in this 



MEDICINE AND THE SICK. 123 

way: Hindus being very averse to leaving their homes, 
they can seldom be prevailed upon to go to the hospi- 
tal until their case becomes hopelessly bad. Then they 
say, " Well, if I must die anyhow, I may as well try the 
hospital as a last chance." As might be supposed, a 
large percentage of such patients die in the hospital. 
They are beyond recovery when they go there. The 
news spreads throughout the villages that this man and 
that man went to the hospital and died there. The 
effect upon their unreasoning minds is to make them 
still more afraid. Now and then cases of this kind are, 
as it were, snatched from the jaws of death under the 
skilful hospital treatment, and these go to create confi- 
dence among the people and counteract in some meas- 
ure the other influence. 

Gradually these well-meant Institutions are growing 
in public favor. Calomel and quinine are asserting their 
superiority over charms and starvation. 

By means of municipal sanitary regulations, health 
primers in the vernacular languages, and native apoth- 
ecaries trained in the government medical colleges, the 
laws of hygiene are becoming popularized, and one of the 
greatest benefits which British rule and missionary effort 
combined are at this day conferring upon India is a 
European knowledge and practice of medicine. 



1 24 E VER Y-DA Y LIFE IN INDIA, 



XIII. BEGGARS AHD CHARITY. 

The Hindus take pride in calling India " The Land 
of Charity," and with great propriety and perhaps more 
truth they might add, " and of beggars." The hordes 
of beggars which throng every street in the cities, and 
every village in the couiltry, are one of the first objects 
to attract the attention of a new-comer. 

If he be compassionately inclined, their piteous wails 
and their apparently wretched condition cannot fail to 
draw from him pity and, what is of much more conse- 
quence to them, sundry small coins. 

So well up are they in their profession, that even the 
blind among them seem to be able to detect in an in- 
stant the newly-arrived European. In him — and yet 
more especially in her — they delight^ and from them 
they receive their princely donations. 

The old Anglo-Indian is proof against their wails 
and their wiles, and so well do they know this that he 
is seldom annoyed by them. 

There is perhaps no other country in the world 
where begging is so respectable as in India. The Brah- 
mans, by precept and example, have made it one of the 
honorable professions. The laws of Manu say, Brah- 
mans may live by gleaning and gathering, by what is 
given them unasked for and by alms received for ask- 
ing; also by traffic and money-lending when deeply 
distressed, but service for hire and manual labor gener- 



BEGGARS AND CHARITY. 125 

ally must be by all means avoided. In regard to Brah- 
man students, these same laws definitely declare as fol- 
lows : 

" He who for seven successive days omits the ceremony of 
begging food, and offers not wood to the sacred fire, must per- 
form penance, unless he be afflicted with illness." Chapter 
II.: 187. 

" Let the student persist constantly in such begging, but let 
him not eat the food of one person only: the subsistence of a 
student by begging is held equal to fasting in religious merit." 
Chapter II. : 188. 

This duty of a mendicant is ordained by the wise 
for a Brahman only ; but no such act is appointed for a 
warrior or for a merchant. 

To bestow charity on Brahmans is said to insure 
certain merit in a future state, while to deny them alms 
is criminal and sinful. 

With such teaching and such example before them, 
we ought not to be surprised to find multitudes of beg- 
gars of all castes and classes among the people of India. 

Tell a beggar that he " ought to be ashamed to beg," 
and he will look at you with mingled wonder and con- 
tempt. Ask an able-bodied Brahman beggar to work 
for a living, and he will at once appeal to his religion, 
and tell you that it is not only a disgrace, but a sin for 
him to work. 

We have known cases of well-to-do people sending 
out a cripple or otherwise disabled member of the fam- 
ily to beg. In former times, when grain was exceed- 
ingly cheap, it was considered the reverse of a misfor- 
tune to have a near relative who could pass as a beggar. 



1 26 E VER Y-DA V LIFE IN INDIA . 

His income was enough to support the rest of the family 
in idleness. With the decay of Hinduism, begging is 
becoming not only less honorable, but also less remu- 
nerative, and from the Brahmans down to the Pariahs 
it is beginning to dawn upon the people that possibly 
the beggar's office has been unduly magnified. We say 
it is beginning to dawn upon the people. It is yet by 
no means a general impression. The present genera- 
tion and perhaps another must pass away before the 
beggars will find their proper level in society. 

The Hindu, according to his religion, believes that 
for every handful of rice or copper coin given to a beg- 
gar, he receives so much merit to his credit with the 
gods ; and the Brahman whom you turn away empty- 
handed pities you for wasting your privileges, rather 
than himself for having been denied alms. 

The incongruous ideas and 

THE EXTRAORDINARY PERFORMANCES 
of some beggars in India are marvellous and amusing. 

" Beggars on horseback" are by no means unknown 
here. A leper on horseback makes his periodical visits 
along the streets of Guntoor, and occasionally honors 
us by a call at our bungalow. 

Others, unable to walk, have themselves wheeled 
about in litde wagons. It requires, of course, an able- 
bodied man or woman to pull the wagon ; and when 
asked why this one does not by honest industry secure 
food for both of them, they pretend to be utterly unable 
to understand such delicate reasoning, and move away 



BEGGARS AND CHARITY. 127 

muttering imprecations. Of these imprecations the 
Hindus are very much afraid, and rather than incur the 
displeasure of a beggar, especially if he be a priest, 
they will give away their last handful of rice. 

Beggars here, as in other countries, are of various 
grades and ranks. Far above the common street-beg- 
gar, to whom he would scarcely deign to speak, is the 
ash-covered, paint-bedaubed priest, who carries an old 
guitar and plays while he sings from door to door. 
Equally far above this one again is the " very respecta- 
ble" Brahman priest who expects to live principally on 
the unasked-for alms of his well-known friends. Even 
among the common street-beggars the most astonishing 
ideas of caste and dignity prevail. Noticing one day a 
bright-looking girl of eight or ten years among a group 
of beggars, I inquired who she was. Her father, a blind 
man, was pointed out to me, and I was told that she 
was leading him about. At the same time I observed 
a still smaller girl — her sister. I then told the father 
that his girls, if brought up in this way, would certainly 
become worthless beggars, and that if he consented to 
it I would take one of them, put her into our school, 
teach her to read, and instruct her in useful work. In 
this way she might become able to support both herself 
and him. I explained further, and also told him that 
when she had grown up he might come and take her 
away. 

To this he replied, with becoming gravity, that if he 
were to allow his daughter to enter our school and eat 
with the Christian girls, she would defile her caste, and 



128 EVERY'DA Y LIFE IN INDIA. 

could never again be received back by him into his 
family. 

Festivals, holidays, and weddings are feast-days for 
beggars. At such times they are on hand early and 
late, and by their importunities make you understand 
that they enter into the spirit of the occasion. Prompt- 
ed by their desire for religious merit, the Hindus are at 
all times liberal to beggars, and especially on the occa- 
sion of great religious ceremonies. 

From a daily paper we quote a random item which 
illustrates the deference paid to beggars, and especially 
to Brahmans : 

"Three hundred thousand rupees (^150,000) were spent 
upon the funeral of the late Maharaja of Burdwan. The origi- 
nal allotment was two hundred thousand rupees, but the Ma- 
harani (queen), who is reported to be a very kind-hearted 
lady, raised the grant to three hundred thousand. It is re- 
ported that about 130,000 beggars collected to receive alms, 
to whom were doled out three seers (quarts) of grain and an 
eight-anna piece per head. 

" Brahmans were invited from both Lower and Upper Ben- 
gal ; and the highest gift to Bengal Brahmans was one hun- 
dred rupees per head, and to Benares, or Upper India Brah- 
mans, one hundred and fifty rupees per head, besides travel- 
ling allowance." 

It is this very liberality on the part of Hindus which 
has flooded the country with useless, annoying beg- 
gars. 

They give away of their means for the simple sake 
of giving, without any consideration for the effect which 
their charity may have upon the country at large or 
upon the recipient himself. 



BEGGARS AND CHARITY, 129 

The public provisions for this class of people are 
very defective. With few unimportant exceptions in 
the larger cities, 

THERE ARE NO ALMSHOUSES, 
no workhouses, no vagrant-laws, no restrictive or re- 
formative regulations of any kind. Even the insane — 
of whom there are, however, comparatively few — are for 
the most part allowed to roam about at large. 

There is another form of public institution which has 
by no means been neglected by native benefactors. This 
is the Choultry, or public resthouse. This seems to be 
a favorite object for them to spend their charities on. 
Scarcely a village is without a public resthouse, and 
many of the larger towns are superabundantly supplied. 

The excavations of tanks and the building of tem- 
ples are the two other most common forms of expend- 
ing large charities. 



130 EVERY-DA Y LIFE IN INDIA, 



XIY. MERCHANTS AUD MOKEY-LEHD- 
ERS. 

Said a thoughtful Hindu to me one day, "We do 
not know our merchants. Although they are our coun- 
trymen and live among us, they are a class wholly by 
themselves, and have but little in common with the rest 
of us." 

Even Europeans cannot fail to notice the secretive 
nature of the merchant class, and though they may live 
in India many years before knowing very much of the 
inner life and feeling of any portion of the native com- 
munity, they will probably know least of all of the 
komities or merchants. The Hindu merchants proper 
belong to the Vaisyas, or last of the three higher castes. 
They wear the sacred thread, and are reckoned among 
the " twice-born." They are the wealthiest and at the 
same time the most superstitious class in India. Their 
ruling passion is the acquisition of wealth. To this end 
they subordinate everything else — truth, honesty, com- 
fort, and culture. Learning, beyond what is required 
to keep accounts, has no charms for them. The im- 
mense profits which many of them make are hoarded 
up in jewels, spent on dancing-girls, foolishly thrown 
away on Brahmans, or superstitiously devoted to idola- 
trous worship, but seldom are their gains turned to no- 
bler account in the improvement of the mind, the beau- 



MERCHANTS AND MONEY-LENDERS. 131 

tifying of home, the encouragement of learning, or the 
unselfish amelioration of distress. 

The late fearful famine proved a rich harvest for 
the merchants and money-lenders, and well did they 
make use of their opportunities to devour their fellow - 
men. 

By their extensive combinations and heartless mach- 
inations the price of grain was run up to enormous rates, 
and kept there out of all proportion to the actual scar- 
city. By storing up vast quantities of grain they helped 
to make a scarcity, and the peculiar Hindu custom of 
one class never turning to the employments of another 
was greatly in their favor. As a consequence, not only 
money, but jewelry, household furniture, cooking and 
farming utensils, cattle, deeds for houses and lands, all 
flowed in a stream toward the merchants and money- 
lenders. These were bought for a trifle, or money was 
loaned on them at exorbitant rates of interest. 

Day by day the bloated, well-fed komities sat in 
their stalls, scrupulously painted with religious marks, 
happy in direct proportion as others were miserable. 

The world over it would perhaps be hard to find 
another class of men so wholly given up to the getting 
of money as the Indian merchants. Of their caste prej- 
udices they are more jealous than even the Brahmans. 
Omens, signs, and auguries find with them a ready ac- 
ceptance, while at the same time they believe implicitly 
in Fate — so much so as to ascribe their very lying and 
cheating to the gods. '* What can I do when god puts 
it into my mind to tell a lie ?" said a merchant to me 



132 EVERY-DA Y LIFE IN INDIA, 

one day when I reproved him for glaring falsehood in 
connection with the sale of some goods. 

They are timid and cowardly, shy of government 
officials, and especially of Europeans. Municipalities 
with their heavy taxes, market inspection and sanitary 
regulations are an abomination in their sight. 

In the hope of having their taxes reduced, it is not 
uncommon for well-to-do merchants to appear with their 
wives and children before the assessors in tatters and 
rags, and putting their hands to their stomachs declare 
that, instead of being rich and prosperous, they are in a 
starving condition. 

So fearful are they of losing favor with the gods, 
that they hesitate to turn away a single beggar from 
their stalls, lest his imprecations should bring them ill- 
fortune. Of Brahmans especially they have a supersti- 
tious fear, and these "divine personages" know well 
how to turn this fear to their own advantage. In all 
their transactions a certain percentage is set down to 
the credit of the gods, and it is from the merchants that 
the religious institutions of the country receive their 
chief support. 

EUROPEANS CANNOT COMPETE WITH THEM. 

If necessary the native merchants can live on a very 
small income, and on this account it is impossible for 
Europeans to compete with them. Where a European 
must have at least two hundred rupees a month, the 
native can live on ten. While the European must have 
a decent room as a place of business, the native sits on 



MERCHANTS AND MONEY-LENDERS. 135 

the ground in an open shed, with his wares lying in 
heaps around him. While the European is planning 
showcases^ counters, drawers, and glass shop-fronts, the 
native procures a dozen baskets at an anna apiece, piles 
his goods into them, arranges them about him on the 
veranda of his go-down, and sets up business. His 
establishment and household expenses being very lit- 
tle, he can sell at a small profit, and still save what is to 
him a handsome income. As a consequence, many arti- 
cles of English manufacture, as steel pens, pencils, ink, 
penknives, needles, pins, etc., are sold cheaper in Indian 
bazaars than in London. The diiference between whole- 
sale and retail prices is for the same reason very little. 
In fact, Indian merchants have a peculiar way of raising 
the price of an article if you ask for it in large quanti- 
ties. A European merchant, on the other hand, is 
always ready to sell cheaper under such circumstances. 
The native's idea is, that the larger the quantity asked 
for, the greater the buyer's need and the greater the 
probability that he will buy even at a higher price. It 
is a short-sighted policy, and one which has often both . 
amused and annoyed us. 

THE MONEY-LENDERS 
have of late been the most thoroughly abused class of 
men in India. " Extortioners," " Hindu Shylocks," 
" incarnate curses," and the like, are the not over-eupho- 
nious titles which have been profusely applied to them 
both in public and private. The famine, the impover- 
ishment of the country, the decrease of agriculture, and 



136 EVERY-DAY LIFE IN INDIA, 

innumerable other evils, have been wildly ascribed to 
them. 

It requires, of course, but little intellectual ability or 
moral courage to heap abuse upon a class of men who 
have no chance of replying, and who would not reply 
if they could. To us it seems a silly performance alto- 
gether. Without wishing to excuse the inordinate greed 
and rapacity of the money-lenders, it must still be clear 
that they can carry their extortion only so far as the 
laws of the country and the weakness of the people 
allow. 

If the money-lenders have acquired undue power in 
India, the sad state of affairs must be ascribed no less 
to the imperfection of legislative statutes and the im- 
providence of the people, than to the inborn wicked- 
ness of this particular class of the community. If India 
has virtually fallen into the grasp of the money-lender, 
as it is claimed with too much truth, some deeper sys- 
tem of reform than public and private abuse of this 
shrewd character is called for. 

That Indian money-lenders are hard masters we do 
not doubt, and that they have a wily way of drawing 
the poor farmers into their remorseless coils we are well 
aware ; but, after all, they are doing only what any of 
the rest of their fellow-countrymen would do if they had 
the opportunity. 

The Indian money-lender's rates of interest are very 
high, ranging from 1 8 to 50 per cent, per annum, and in 
special cases even more. As the interest has to be paid 
monthly or quarterly, the burden does not fall so heavily 



MERCHANTS AND MONEY-LENDERS. 137 

at once upon the borrower, and though he might not 
be able to refund the whole amount of the principal at 
any one time, he soon pays it over and over again in 
the form of interest. This is the strategic point with 
the money-lender, and the improvidence of the ordinary 
Hindu works greatly to his advantage. 

In easy times, when the debtor might be able to re- 
fund the principal or a part of it, the lender uses every 
art to dissuade him from doing so. The principal is 
precisely what he does not want to have back. Wheth- 
er or not he ever gets it is a small matter to him so long 
as he gets it many times over as interest. Should the 
borrower be inclined to pay up the principal, the wily 
lender will offer to lower the rate of interest, profess 
utter indifference as to when it is paid, and in every 
possible way induce him to rest unconcerned about the 
matter. 

As soon, however, as hard times overtake the bor- 
rower, and he has difficulty to pay even the interest due, 
the lender's tone changes. Then he asks for the prin- 
cipal, or in lieu of it a higher rate of interest. Knowing 
full well that the borrower cannot refund the debt, he har- 
asses him continually. " I am offered by others a much 
higher interest than you are giving me," says he, *' and 
unless you can return your loan you must give the same 
I am able to get elsewhere." 

Thus, when the poor farmer or mechanic has once 
fallen into the hands of the money-lender, the chances 
are that not only he but his children and children's 
children will suffer the ruinous consequences. 



138 EVERY'DA Y LIFE IN INDIA. 



XV, AUSPICIOUS DAYS, OMEHS, KTC. 

Although the Hindus believe in auspicious days and 
seasons ; in signs, omens, and auguries ; in fortune-telU 
ing and the interpretation of dreams ; in ghosts, witches, 
and demons — they are not so much taken up with these 
superstitions as one might suppose. The Chinese excel 
them by far in their attachment to matters of this kind. 

Auspicious days for marriages, journeys, and other 
special undertakings are always insisted upon, and the 
selection of these days and seasons is an important part 
of the duties of the Brahman family priests. An illus- 
tration of the hold which the belief in auspicious times 
has upon the mind of even educated Hindus was fur- 
nished by the late Raja of Vizianagram during the visit 
of the Prince of Wales to India. He was exceedingly 
anxious to attend the durbar given by the prince in 
Calcutta, but because his astrologer assured him there 
was no auspicious day on which to begin the journey 
in time to reach the durbar, he had to forego the pleas- 
ure and honor of meeting the prospective Emperor of 
India on that occasion. This man, it must be remem- 
bered, was a good scholar himself, a patron of Western 
as well as of Oriental learning, and one of the most pro- 
gressive and enlightened of India's native princes. 

The belief in mantrams or powwowing for the 
cure of diseases, the restoration of stolen property, the 
exorcising of demons, and the chastisement of those 



AUSPICIOUS DA YS, OMENS, ETC, 139 

who offend the mantram -saying priests, is also general ; 
but the stronghold of witchcraft, ghosts, and spiritual- 
ism in general is among the Shanar demon-worshippers 
of Southern India. The various hill tribes are also 
more addicted to these beliefs than the Hindus proper. 
Of the gross demon-worship of the Shanars, with all its 
accompanying absurdities, such full and disproportion- 
ate accounts have been published as might give the 
impression that the mass of Hindus are demon-worship- 
pers, which is not the case. 

The following instance, showing the popular belief 
in mantrams, has lately come under our observation. 
A personal friend and former neighbor of ours, a col- 
lector, had four hundred rupees stolen out of his cash- 
chest, and suspecting that one of his servants was the 
thief, he used every means he could devise to find out 
the criminal and recover his property. He confined all 
the servants, offered rewards, threatened punishments, 
and proclaimed amnesty, but all to no avail. Finally, 
at the suggestion of a native friend, he called a man- 
tram-man, to whom he offered a small reward if he 
should recover the money. 

The mantram -man arranged the servants in a line, 
made each one in turn take hold of one end of a bam- 
boo pole, while he held the other and repeated the 
magical incantations. This performance over, he made 
the simple announcement, " Now I know the thief, and 
unless he returns the money within twenty-four hours 
he will be a corpse." That night the four hundred ru- 
pees were safely deposited on the collector's dining-table. 
16 



I40 E VERY-DA V LIFE IN INDIA. 

There is a general belief in ghosts, which, here as 
elsewhere, is strong in proportion to the ignorance of 
the believer ; while fortune-telling and the interpretation 
of dreams hold a place in the popular mind very much 
the same as in Europe and America. 

A Brahman friend, well versed in this kind of super- 
natural lore, has furnished me the following interesting 
information : 

" If a man, upon deciding to do a certain act, hears the 
sound of musical instruments, it is a good omen. 

" If, after having decided upon a certain act, he comes in 
contact with fruit, flowers, white rice, rice-milk, a young girl, 
or a dancing-woman, it is a good omen. 

" Also, meeting an elephant, a horse, a bull, a dead body, 
an army, a large flame, full pots, fish, or a seller of bangles, is 
a good omen. 

" If a man wishes to start on a journey, and his dress should 
be caught as he is about to leave, or some one should say to 
him, * Do n't go,' * Go after meals,' ' t will accompany you,' or, 
'Where are you going?' he must consider it as a bad omen. 

" Having started on a journey, should he meet a gray head, 
new pots, a widow, a single Brahman, a bundle of firewood, 
or a dust-storm, the journey must be abandoned. 

" In starting on a journey, should the traveller meet a man 
with a bandaged head, red hair, or with untied hair, the jour- 
ney will not be a joyful one." 

The common house-lizard, a harmless little reptile, 
elsewhere described, is a fruitful source of omens. 

This animal makes a peculiar thumping noise, which 
if heard on the left side is an evil omen, but if on the 
right side a good one. If the sound of the lizard is 
heard over the doorway, it foretells the arrival of rela- 
tives or friends; if the traveller hears it on his right 



AUSPICIOUS DAYS, OMENS, ETC. 141 

hand the omen is good, if on his left, bad. By a sys- 
tem of combinations and permutations the hzard-omens 
become almost endless. The points of the compass, 
north, northeast, northwest, south, southeast, southwest, 
east and west, the eight watches of the day and night, 
and the number of times the sound is heard — from one 
up to twenty — enter into these prognostications. For 
instance, the sound proceeding from the west and being 
heard in the first watch a single time, portends some- 
thing ; if heard in the same direction but in the second 
watch, or a different number of times, it betokens some- 
thing else. 

Thus for the points of the compass and the eight 
watches alone the variations, with corresponding omens, 
amount to sixty-four, and if the number of times the 
sound is heard be taken into consideration, the varia- 
tions amount to twelve hundred and eighty — a list ra- 
ther longer than any of us would care to read, write, or 
observe. But this is not all. As the lizard in scamper- 
ing over the walls and roof or ceiling of the house in 
pursuit of flies and other insects, frequently loses its 
foothold and tumbles down, 

THE FALL OF THE LIZARD 

furnishes a lengthy catalogues of omens. Thus — 

" The fall of the lizard on the middle of the head foretells 
sickness ; on the right side of the head of any one of the fam- 
ily, harm to the elder brother ; on the left side of the head, 
harm to the younger brother ; on the forehead, the arrival of 
guests ; on the right eye, evil ; on the left eye, wealth ; on the 
nose, sickness ; on the right ear, good ; on the left ear, evil." 



142 E VER Y-DA V LIFE IN INDIA, 

The performances of the ''blood-sucker" — a larger 
lizard which frequents bushes and hedges — are also 
classified as omens. 

SNEEZING 
comes in for extraordinary significance. Sneezing once, 
or twice ; when and where ; standing on one foot or on 
two ; sitting, standing, walking, or running ; while cough- 
ing or expectorating ; by those who are well, sick, low 
caste or high caste; by the lame, blind, or dumb; by 
various workmen, as burden-bearers, washermen, oil- 
sellers, tailors, etc., each and all have their various sig- 
nifications. 

The involuntary twitchings of the muscles in vari- 
ous parts of the body are also said to foretell events, 
good, bad, or indifferent, as the case may be, according 
to the wisdom and foresight of those to whom such 
things have been revealed. 

We have by no means exhausted the Hindu cata- 
logue of omens, but we have already mentioned many 
more than are commonly known or heeded among the 
people. 

While the priests, whose business it is to give inter- 
pretations of such matters, are never in want of the 
right kind of information, the mass of the people them- 
selves have more practical work to attend to, and con- 
cern themselves probably no more about signs and 
omens than people of their grade of intelligence in 
Western lands. 



THE POOR. 143 



XYI. THE POOR. 

In no other respect is there so great a dififerencc 
between Christian and non- Christian nations as in their 
treatment of the poor and helpless. Christianity infuses 
a spirit of brotherhood which is altogether foreign to 
the religions of the East. 

There is here no attempt to raise up the poor and 
unfortunate, such as we find in Christian lands. The 
only occasion on which the well-to-do concern them- 
selves about the condition of their less-favored brethren, 
is when they feel called upon to repress them in their 
efforts at improvement. " Their brethren," did I say ? 
Here is the rub. The higher castes in India disown 
the rest of their fellow-countrymen as brethren. They 
look upon them as beings as different from themselves 
in origin and destiny as dogs and donkeys, and treat 
them accordingly. 

Hinduism, with all Its boast of not taking the life of 
crawHng worms and venomous reptiles, is a cruel, heart- 
less, human-life-devouring system as it affects the poor 
and helpless. By its very precepts, all who are born 
outside a limited circle are doomed to misery here and 
hereafter. Not only are they in theory thus classified 
with dumb brutes, but every attempt on their part to 
rise to a higher plane is stoutly resisted, even to vio- 
lence, by the higher castes. 

Through the benign influence of the British govern- 



1 44 E VER Y-DA Y LIFE IN INDIA . 

merit in India, the condition of the low-caste people has 
been wonderfully improved, but it is still sad enough. 
In the native states, especially where Brahmanical influ- 
ence is strong, their liberation has not been so rapid. 
Still, as all the native princes are in a manner subject to 
British power, its influence has been felt even there. 

Among those whose oppression has been sorest and 
longest continued, are the Pulyars, in the native state of 
Travancore. Not because it is altogether singular, but 
because it shows of what oppression Hinduism is capa- 
ble even thus late in the nineteenth century, when not 
forcibly restrained by government, we give an extract 
from a late work* on Travancore, showing the condition 
of these poor out-castes : 

" Their very name expresses the idea of impurity ; it is 
derived from the word * pula ' — funeral pollution. With re- 
gard to his personal comfort and deportment, the only dress 
of the degraded Pulyar is a piece of coarse cloth fastened 
round the loins, and a small piece tied around the head as a 
headdress. To the women, as well as to the men, it was forbid- 
den until 1865 (when through the benevolent interposition of 
the British government the restriction was removed) to wear 
any clothing whatever above the waist. Their ornaments 
must be no more valuable than brass or beads. Umbrellas 
must not be used to shelter the body from the scorching heat 
of the sun, nor shoes to protect the feet from the thorns and 
sharp stones of the jungle paths. 

** The Pulyar has no education, for who would be found 
willing to teach or even to approach the impure one ? The 
language which he is compelled to use is in the highest de- 
gree abject and degrading. He dare not say ' I,* but * adiyen,* 

* " The Land of Charity," by Rev. Samuel Mateer, F. L. S. 



THE POOR. 145 

'your slave ;' he dare not call his rice 'choru,' but ' karikadi,' 
' dirty gruel.' He asks leave, not to take food, but * to drink 
water.* His house is called ' madam,' a hut, and his children 
he speaks of as ' monkeys' or ' calves ;' and when speaking he 
must place the hand over the mouth, lest the breath should 
go forth and pollute the person whom he is addressing. 

** The Pulyar's home is a little shed which barely affords 
shelter from the rain and space to lie down at night, destitute 
alike of comfort and furniture. It must be built In a situation 
far from the houses of all respectable persons. Let him dare 
attempt the erection of a better house, and it will immedi- 
ately be torn down by the infuriated Sudras. Very rarely 
has the Pulyar land of his own. It belongs to the Sudra mas- 
ter, and the poor slave is liable to be expelled from the land 
which he occupies and from his means of living, if he claims 
the freedom to which he is now entitled by law. I have known 
Sudras even talce forcible possession of waste land which had 
been cleared and cultivated by Pulyars. 

" In the transaction of the ordinary business of life, the dis- 
abilities of the low-caste man are grievous. The Pulyar is not 
allowed to use the public road when a Brahman or a Sudra 
walks on it. The poor slave must utter a cry of warning, and 
hasten off the roadway into the mud on the one hand or the 
briers on the other, lest the high-caste man should be polluted 
by his near approach or by his shadow. The law is (and I 
was informed by legal authority that it is still binding) that a 
Pulyar must never approach a Brahman nearer than ninety- 
six paces, and he must remain at about half this distance from 
a Sudra. I have often seen the Sudra master shouting from 
the prescribed distance to his slaves toiling in the fields. 

" Until a late order of government, which legally removes 
the disability, a Pulyar could not enter a court of justice, but 
had to shout from the appointed distance, and take his chance 
of being heard and of receiving attention. 

" As he cannot enter a town or village, no employment is 
open to him except that of working in the rice-fields, and such 
kinds of labor. He cannot even act as a porter, for he defiles 



146 E VER Y'DA Y LIFE IN INDIA. 

all that he touches. He cannot work as a domestic servant, 
for the house would be polluted by his entrance ; much less 
can he, even were he by some means to succeed in obtaining 
education or capital, become a clerk, schoolmaster, or mer- 
chant. 

" Caste affects even his purchases and sales. The Pulyars 
make umbrellas and other small articles, place them on the 
highway, retire to the appointed distance, and shout to pass- 
ers-by with reference to their sales. If the Pulyar wishes to 
make a purchase, he places his money on a stone and retires 
to the appointed distance. Then the merchant or seller comes, 
takes up the money, and lays down whatever quantity of goods 
he chooses to give for the sum received— a most profitable 
mode of doing business for the merchant, but alas for the 
poor purchaser ! 

" Reference might be made further to the rites of religious 
worship in which the Pariahs and Pulyars are' not allowed to 
unite with the holy Brahmans ; and of times of sickness and 
distress in which no aid will be rendered by those best able 
to assist. Were fifty Pulyars drowning in a river, the Brah- 
mans and other caste men would stand aloof and witness 
their dying struggles with perfect indifference, and would 
never put forth a hand to touch and to save their wretched 
and despised fellow-creatures." 

The same spirit of oppression, which is still so rife 
in this native state, is not dead in other parts of India ; 
but for fear of the strong arm of the government it hides 
itself as much as possible and works the more vigor- 
ously in underhanded ways. Instead of devising means 
of relief for the poor, as is common in Christian lands, 
the rich and powerful glory in oppressing them ; instead 
of pointing out means of livelihood for the deserving 
poor, the rich hinder them in all their attempts at ob- 
taining honorable employment. Instead of aiding them 



THE POOR. H7 

in obtaining an education, they throw into their way all 
conceivable obstacles. Although the government 
schools are legally open to all castes, practically it is 
utterly impossible for low-caste children to attend them. 

In the lower courts of justice, where the presence of 
Europeans does not check partiality, the poor out-caste 
has a slim chance of receiving his due. Although the 
judge might be inclined to decide fairly, he is frequently 
so blinded by inborn prejudice and so befogged by in- 
triguing pleaders that he is unable to mete out even- 
handed justice. 

It is no unusual thing for the poor man's pleader to 
be bought over to the rich man's side, even while he 
pretends to be serving the former. The man who is 
poor, whatever his caste, stands a slim chance of win- 
ning in the ordinary Indian courts. The moment he is 
driven to law he must begin "to fee" his way. The 
man who writes him his petition must be well paid, or 
he will do his work indifferently ; the peons who guard 
the door of the court-room must be bribed to let him 
in, unless he. chooses to wait for days without; every 
policeman who had anything to do with the case, even 
to the summoning of witnesses, looks for a gratuity ; 
and the witnesses, as a rule, from the least unto the 
greatest, are ready to depose on the side which pays 
the better. 

Thus situated, our readers can readily see how ut- 
terly helpless the poor man is, even under the best laws, 
so long as his greedy, selfish countrymen are moved by 
no sympathy for his wretched condition, but hold him 
17 



1 48 E VER Y-DA Y LIFE IN INDIA . 

in cruel, slavish bondage simply because he is poor and 
helpless. 

Great changes are, however, going on in India, and 
these changes are for the most part favorable to the poor 
man. The reformation will necessarily be a gradual 
one. The poorer classes, with manliness, individuaHty, 
and all noble aspirations well-nigh crushed out of their 
natures by long ages of oppression, are as little prepared 
for sudden liberation and elevation as are their tyranni- 
cal neighbors to grant them such a boon. 

The most effective help for the poor and despised 
of India comes at present through Christian missions. 
These missions acknowledge, however, that without the 
salutary laws of the British government and the protec- 
tion which it affords them, their efforts would have to 
be much less successful. On the other hand, it is grat- 
ifying to the friends of missions to find the value of mis- 
sionary operations appreciated by the government itself. 
In the latest " Census Report of the Madras Presidency" 
we find the following testimony to the beneficial results 
of missionary work among the lower classes : 

*' The native Christian community has been recruited very 
largely from the out-caste races and inferior castes of Hindus, 
and nothing can be more gratifying than to see what educa- 
tion has done for this despised section of the people. 

" The native Christians constitute only about one-sixtieth 
part of the population, but in the last fifteen years they have 
furnished about one -twelfth of the successful candidates 
for the university entrance examination, a result that cannot 
but be extremely gratifying to the laborers in Christian mis- 
sions, and which shows also what may be done in the im- 
provement of the status of the inferior castes of Hindus." 



THE INDIAN VILLAGE, 149 



XYII. THE IHDIAH YILLAGE. 

Hindus live in villages and only in villages. We 
should as soon expect to find the cells of the honey-bee 
scattered singly here and there, as to find Hindu dwell- 
ings isolated and scattered throughout the country as 
is the custom in other lands. A farmer will go to and 
from his fields for miles, but in the village he must and 
will live. The reason generally given for their objec- 
tion to living in isolated places is that they are afraid of 
robbers ; but India is not more given to this kind of 
outlaws than other countries, and there must be some 
other reasons for this universal custom, the strongest 
of which probably is the custom itself 

The ordinary Hindu village consists of two distinct 
sections, which may be separated by only a wide street 
or by a number of fields. The larger and better section 
is regarded as the village proper, and in it live the 
high-caste people, including Brahmans, Sudras, Mo- 
hammedans and others of equal caste grade. In the 
smaller and poorer section live the Pariahs and other 
out-caste and non-caste people. Formerly the inhabi- 
tants of this despised section were not allowed to enter 
the streets of the village proper, but latterly caste dis- 
tinctions are by no means so strictly observed. 

APPEARANCE. 
Hindu villages are all made after the same pattern. 
Though rarely well shaded, almost every village has in 



156 E VERY-DA Y UFE IN INDIA, 

and around it a number of palms, banyans, margosas 
or other trees, on account of which, when viewed from 
a distance, it presents a beautiful and inviting appear- 
ance. This is emphaticaHy one of the scenes where 
distance leads enchantment to the view. The beauty 
vanishes in direct proportion as we come nearer, until 
dust, dirt and stifling odors make us eager to retrace 
our steps or to pass quickly by. No sanitary regula- 
tions disturb the serenity or tax the pockets of the 
village fathers. No garbage wagons disturb the early 
slumbers of housekeepers, and even the farmers are 
too stupid or too listless to utilize the refuse of the 
streets in fertilizing their fields. 

The houses are of one story, mud walls, and thatch 
or tile roof. The latter is an extravagance which only 
the comparatively rich can afford. By way of decora- 
tion, the front walls of the houses are sometimes painted 
in vertical stripes about a foot wide, red alternating 
with white. More commonly, however, utility takes 
precedence of ornament, and the front of the house is 
covered with cakes of cow manure, stuck there for dry- 
ing in the sun so as to become fit for fuel. 

But little attempt is made at cultivating shade-trees 
or flowers. The small space surrounding the house is 
occupied as cattle-stalls and grain-bins. 

The village tank, a large reservoir not far away, for 
watering "cattle, washing clothing, and irrigating fields, 
the village well, which only those of the higher castes 
are allowed to approach, the " bazaar " or market-place, 
where the few commodities required by the frugal resi- 



THE INDIAN VILLAGE. 153 

dents are sold, a few stray donkeys grazing on the 
commons, a scrawny, forlorn pony, which for some 
mysterious reason is hobbled, an occasional mangy, 
starving Pariah dog, and numberless dusky youngsters 
in nature's garb, all enter into the picture of an ordinary 
Hindu village. 

GOVERNMENT. 

The village rules and regulations are unique and 
interesting. In former days and for thousands of years 
in succession, the village administration of India was a 
marvel of peaceful working and quiet stability. Every 
detail was regulated by custom which had come to be 
law, every individual had his place, knew it and kept it. 

The present government being more vigilant over 
the rights of individuals, and having no hesitancy in 
interfering with established usage where improvement 
is called for, the influence of village oflicials has been 
considerably lessened, and the even tenor of the old 
Indian village system has been somewhat disturbed. 

Under the latest orders the village oflicials have 
been made salaried oflicers, receiving their pay direct 
from government. It was thought this arrangement 
would inspire them with more fear of the higher author- 
ities and have a tendency to check oppression and 
bribery. It has probably some advantages, but it 
cannot be denied that the repeated interference on the 
part of government has to some extent destroyed the 
influence of the local officials and the peaceful admin- 
istration of former days,, when the Headman's word 



1 54 E VER Y-DA Y LIFE IN INDIA. 

was final law, and the clerk's bribery more public but 
less oppressive. 

The old village system had much more community 
of goods and servants, and much stronger cohesiveness 
than we should have expected to find compatible with 
the rigid caste distinctions of the people. The officers 
were these, and to a great extent they are still the same. 

1. The Munsif ox Headman, who has Hmited magis- 
terial authority by law, and much more by custom. 
He is held responsible for the general good behavior of 
the whole village, must report delinquents to the police 
or magistrate, is expected to furnish supplies to travellers 
and government officials, ^d give information concern- 
ing the assessment and collection of taxes. We have 
observed that he is generally the largest man in the 
village, his house the best, and his family the most 
influential. He is usually one of the farmers, and can 
seldom either read or write. 

2. The Kurna^n or Clerk. This office is nearly 
always in the hands of Brahmans, the reason for this 
being that formerly they were the only class able to 
read and write. The village clerk has an important 
post, and though his nominal pay is small, rupees, 
houses and lands gravitate towards him in a remarkable 
manner. 

His position subjects him to many temptations to 
bribery and oppression, while his moral character is 
usually such as to afford him litde resisting power. 

His chief business is to collect the revenue and pay 
it over to the government. He is also the private 



THE INDIAN VILLAGE, 155 

secretary of everybody in the village who needs one. 
He has to write all the letters, complaints and petitions 
of the villagers. For this he receives fees and presents, 
but what is of more value to him, he knows everybody's 
secrets and is a witness whom it is worth while to buy. 

3. The Motart is an official of inferior rank. His 
business is to assist the Munsif and the Kurnam in 
carrying out their orders. His position carries with it 
some dignity, a small salary, and a few perquisites. 

4. The Vettymen are the lowest village servants. 
They run hither and thither at the bidding of the other 
officials, act as scavengers when necessary, show the 
way to passing travellers, and make themselves gener- 
ally useful to the village in a menial capacity. 

5. The Watchman is a functionary of considerable 
importance, though since the introduction of the mod- 
ern police system his glory has somewhat departed. 
The watchman was formerly the guardian of boundaries 
public and private ; he was the chief of police and was 
expected to know all suspicious characters, and in case 
of theft find the stolen property or trace the thief to the 
boundary of his township. 

Then there is the money-changer, who supplies the 
villagers with coins, large or small as may be required, 
and lends them small sums of money at a high interest; 
the goldsmith, who keeps the jewels in repair and 
makes new ones when required, is ready to prepare a 
tali or marriage badge whenever a wedding comes off, 
and, turning his hand also to coarser work, supplies 
brass vessels for household use; the carpenter, the pot- 



156 EVERY-DAY LIFE IN INDIA. 

ter, the shoemaker and the washerman, who are all 
indispensable and are considered in a manner village 
servants. The same is true of the barber, who com- 
bines with his tonsorial profession that of a surgeon. 
He is supposed, riioreover, to be a sort of intelligence 
office ready to retail all the news of the village, whether 
good or bad, general or personal. 

Another group of servants, whom for dignity and 
importance we ought to have mentioned earlier, are 
the priests for performing religious ceremonies, the 
schoolmaster for instructing a few favored youths, the 
astrologer for prescribing auspicious times, the physi- 
cian for watching over the health of the community, and 
the genealogist, who is the standard authority on family 
trees. 

All these are considered village functionaries, living 
and laboring for the good of the community, and ready 
at all times to receive a present from any one in recog- 
nition of their public services. 

The village Punchyat or " Council of Five," is an 
institution worthy of notice. It consists of a commit- 
tee — either permanent or temporary — of five of the 
chief men in the village, to decide cases of a moral 
nature, and especially those relating to a violation of 
caste rules. They fix punishments of fines and penan- 
ces, and the offenders have no alternative but to ac- 
quiesce. Should the action of the council be disre- 
garded in such cases, the moral suasion which follows 
is of a very serious kind. The offender is deprived of 
caste privileges. No one is allowed to give him work, 



THE INDIAN VILLAGE. 157 

water, food, or fire, nor is any one allowed to converse 
with him until he relents. The same orders are at 
once communicated to his caste-fellows in other villa- 
ges, and whoever disregards them becomes a partner 
in his crime. It is a punishment which few have the 
courage to face, and the decision of the punchyat is 
therefore generally implicitly obeyed. Such a council 
is also sometimes called to report in connection with 
the Munsif on cases of sudden death, robbery, etc. 

Elphinstone in his history of India pays the follow- 
ing encomium to the Hindu village system : 

" The village communities are little republics, hav- 
ing nearly everything they can want within themselves, 
and almost independent of any foreign relations. They 
seem to last where nothing else lasts. Dynasty after 
dynasty tumbles down ; revolution succeeds to revolu- 
tion; Hindu, Patau, Mogul, Mahratta, Sikh, English, 
are all masters in turn ; but the village community re- 
mains the same. In times of trouble they arm and for- 
tify themselves ; a hostile army passes through the coun- 
try ; the village communities collect their cattle within 
their walls and let the enemy pass unprovoked. If plun- 
der and devastation be directed against themselves, and 
the force employed be irresistible, they flee to friendly 
villages at a distance ; but when the storm has passed 
over they return and resume their occupations. If a 
country remain for a series of years the scene of con- 
tinual pillage and warfare, so that the villages cannot be 
inhabited, the scattered villagers nevertheless return 
whenever the power of peaceable possession revives. A 
18 



158 EVERY-DA Y LIFE IN INDIA. 

generation may pass away, but the succeeding genera- 
tion will return. The sons will take the places of the 
fathers ; the same site for the village, the same positions 
for the houses, the same lands will be reoccupied by the 
descendants of those who were driven out when the vil- 
lage was depopulated. This union of the village com- 
munity, each one forming a separate little state in itself, 
has, I conceive, contributed more than any other cause 
to the preservation of the people of India through all 
the revolutions and changes which they have suffered, 
and is in a high degree conducive to their happiness 
and to the enjoyment of a great portion of freedom and 
independence." 



HINDU FESTIVALS, 159 



ZYIII. HINDU FESTIVALS. 

Hindu festivals, of more or less importance, are 
common all over the country. In Northern India, 
however, they attain their greatest size and importance, 
and it is with special satisfaction that we present to our 
readers the following account of the character and ap- 
pearance of a Hindu festival on the banks of the Gan- 
ges. It has been kindly contributed to this book by 
the Rev. A. Rudolph of Lodiana, North India, whose 
more than forty years' residence in the country gives 
him special familiarity with the subject. 

THE GANGES. 

"The Ganges is to the Hindu a holy object, to 
which he offers divine worship, and in whose waters he 
bathes in the hope that there all his sins shall be washed 
away. This magnificent stream, therefore, is an object 
of adoration throughout its whole length, for upwards 
of 1,500 miles from its sources in the Himalayas down 
to its mouth in the Bay of Bengal. Gangotre, the foun- 
tains; Hurdwar, where the river leaves the mountains 
and flows into the broad plains of India; Allahabad, 
where it is joined by an auxiliary, the Jumna ; Hajee- 
pore, where the Gandhak flows into it ; Benares, hard 
on the banks of the stream — are to the Hindu the very 
gate of heaven ; and these and many similar localities 



1 60 E VER Y-DA V LIFE IN INDIA . 

are noted places of pilgrimage, where, at stated seasons 
of the year, thousands of people from all parts of the 
land congregate for the purpose of viewing the river, as 
they express it, of sipping its waters, and bathing in its 
floods. 

"Weeks, sometimes months, before the appointed 
time, Brahmans and fakirs travel through the land from 
town to town and from village to village, and invite the 
people to follow them to the holy shrines, and thus to 
gather merit and to obtain mukti (salvation). Par- 
ties of from twenty to fifty and more are met day by 
day on the highways, on foot and in ox-carts, on ponies 
and elephants, all eagerly pressing forward towards the 
supposed fountains of bliss. The nights, whether dry 
or wet, are spent in the open air by the side of the road, 
often far from any human habitation. An open plain 
and a well by the roadside are all the accommodation 
they claim, though groves and, still more, sheltered 
places in villages and towns, are made use of if they 
come in their way. With the earliest dawn these com- 
panies break up, to leave the encamping-ground of the 
past night, for another long, tedious journey must be 
accomplished before evening sets in. Thus are weeks, 
sometimes months, spent in travelling ; for the longer 
the journey and the greater the fatigue, the greater is 
the merit gained. At last, after many a weary march 
and many a night spent in discomfort on the bare 
ground, they reach the end of their journey, hungry 
and thirsty, foot-sore and fatigued, covered thickly with 
dust. But Mother Ganges has no comfortable accom- 



HINDU FESTIVALS. 163 

modation in hotels or inns, no soft beds, no well-cooked 
meals to offer them. Nothing but muddy water and a 
vast sandy plain by the banks of the river, that has been 
overflowed during the rainy season, and that has since 
been dried again by the rays of an Indian sun, has this 
goddess to offer to her votaries. No shrub, hardly a 
blade of grass, is to be seen ; a few stunted trees may 
be scattered over the vast plain, but these have been 
secured in time by Brahmans, who invariably occupy 
the nicest spots that can be found in India. 

" As soon as a party of pilgrims arrives and views 
the longed-for object — the Ganges — one of them 'calls 
out to his companions, " Bolo !" (shout), and all with 
one accord shout at the top of the voice, " Ganga it ki 
jai" (victory to the Ganges). This, in fact, had been 
the watchword all along since they started on the jour- 
ney, but now it is uttered with greater energy than ever 
before. A coarse cloth is spread on the ground ; those 
who can afford it set up a few bamboo sticks, spread a 
blanket or piece of cotton cloth over them, and this 
forms the habitation for the people by day and the only 
shelter for the night while the mela lasts. 

" New parties now arrive in quick succession, and in 
a very short time the sandy banks of the river are cov- 
ered for miles by an immense multitude of people. 
Thus these silent waters become suddenly, as by the 
wand of the magician, the scene of life and activity. At 
the common yearly festivals the pilgrims are counted by 
thousands, but on the return of the kuinb (the mela that 
occurs every twelfth year), they are numbered by hun- 



i64 EVERY-DA Y LIFE IN INDIA. 

dreds of diousands, and have sometimes amounted to 
millions. 

" On arrival, the thickest dust is shaken out of the 
clothes and wiped off the face. A short rest is taken, 
and then the men, leaving the women squatting together 
in parties, chatting and laughing, screaming and quar- 
relling, walk about to look up acquaintances, to see 
sights, and amuse themselves as best they can, for 
though the object of the mela is the adoration of the 
Ganges, this, as well as all other heathen worship, is 
quite consistent with most childish frivolities, and even 
sinful amusements and excesses. 

FAKIRS AND THEIR SELF-TORTURE. 

" There is a crowd of people running to meet a com- 
pany of naked fakirs marching along in procession. 
They are viewed with special interest, and admired as 
the holy men of India. Their bodies are covered from 
head to foot with ashes, or, if a high degree of holiness 
is attained, with dung. For years their long, entangled 
hair has not been combed. It is clotted together with 
dirt, and has of course become the harbor of vileness 
that a civilized man abominates. One carries around 
his shoulders a tiger's skin ; another has stuck a bunch 
of peacock feathers in his hair; another has wrapped 
himself in a quilt composed of rags of the most incon- 
gruous stuffs and colors ; another carries in his hand a 
pair of immense fire-tongs, for he is a fire-worshipper ; 
another wears a huge devil's cap on his head ; and in- 
deed if you wished to make an image of the evil one, 



HINDU FESTIVALS. 165 

you could hardly choose a more befitting pattern. If 
the external appearance of these fakirs is hideous in the 
extreme, their proud, wanton look betrays a mind as 
filthy and hideous as their bodies. But why should 
not they be proud ? If the Ganges is adored as a god- 
dess, they are worshipped as gods ; for they have the 
power to curse, as well as to bless. You are provoked 
to believe them devils incarnate, and you wish them 
anywhere rather than here, where they expose their 
vile bodies to the gaze of women as well as men. If 
public opinion, now, and the disapprobation with which 
the government is known to regard entire nudity did 
not force them to wear a rag of cloth six inches long 
and four inches broad, they would gladly dispense with 
even that much of covering, as they used to do only a 
few years ago. 

"There is a pilgrim who is just coming in. He 
made the vow to go on a pilgrimage to the Ganges, 
but not in the ordinary way ; he was to measure the 
way from his distant habitation to the banks of the 
Ganges by the length of his body. Look ; he has just 
risen from the ground; carefully he steps up to the 
mark he has drawn with his finger on the sand ; now 
he prostrates himself on the ground with his face in the 
dust, draws another line in the sand along by his head ; 
rising again, he places his feet near the stroke on the 
ground, and again lays himself down to make another 
mark. Several months ago he commenced this mode 
of travelling, and now he has finished the journey, and 
is just in time to take part in the mela and receive the 



i66 EVERY'DA V LIFE IN INDIA. 

homage of the people, for henceforth he is a saint and 
entitled to the good things of the earth that will now be 
offered to him freely. 

" Let us go and see what that booth contains. It 
seems to be a great centre of attraction, for it is sur- 
rounded continually by crowds of sight-seers. A dozen 
fakirs sit in state ; they are self- tormentors, each of whom 
has held up one of his arms vertically until it has dried 
up to a stick. The joints at the shoulder and elbow have 
lost their use, so that the arm cannot now be brought 
down again to its natural position. The nails have 
never been trimmed since the arm was elevated, and 
have outgrown the length of the fingers, and in some 
instances have grown fast to the flesh in the palm of the 
stiff and shrivelled hand. 

" You pity the poor cripple who stands on one leg 
leaning with folded arms upon a low crotchet ; the other 
leg hangs down lifeless and dried up by the side of its 
partner. But this is not the way the man came from 
the hand of the Creator ; nor was it an accident that 
deprived him of the use of the Hmb. Ten years ago he 
vowed to stand for sixteen years on one leg ; six still 
remain till he shall have paid his vow in full. In the 
summer, when a fierce Indian sun is trying the consti- 
tution even of a native of that sunny land, he causes five 
fires to be kindled around him ; and in winter, when the 
nights are sometimes sharp and cold in Northern India, 
he causes the people to carry him into a shallow tank, 
where he spends the night, standing in the water, lean- 
ing upon his crochet. His only food is cow's milk 



HINDU FESTIVALS, 167 

now, and this is freely brought to him by people who 
say that he has now almost become Parmeshwar 
(God). 

" The question may be asked, What induced these 
men to choose a life like this ? Was it a deep sorrow 
that drove them to it ? Was it the smiting of conscience 
that gave them no rest and made them thus try to atone 
for past sins ? Did they feel it to be their duty to cru- 
cify the flesh, and did they therefore choose this method 
of mortifying it ? Is it peace of heart that they thus 
seek to obtain? Their looks do not denote this; we 
can read nothing but utter stupidity or inveterate pride 
on their countenances, a vain gratification at being 
gazed at and admired. We stand before a problem 
which we cannot solve. A whim, a fit of passion, a 
quarrel in the family, a supposed wrong inflicted, is 
often sufficient to make a native of India throw away 
his life and commit suicide : but more is needed to give 
these self - tormentors that persevering determination 
which deadens them to bodily pain, and enables them 
to bear discomfort of the most revolting kind. Even 
the strongest desire to become great and to be adored 
as a god does not fully explain the mystery. 

*' A few paces up the hill brings us into the presence 
of another abominable sight. A stark-naked fakir lies 
with spread-out arms and legs, and with closed eyes, 
upon a bare, sloping rock, without the least motion of 
a limb, from early dawn till late at night, and, if we are 
to believe the people, all night through. Women as 
well as men prostrate themselves before him and ofler 
19 



I68 EVERY-DA Y LIFE IN INDIA. 

their copper coins. He makes a good business of it, 
and yet he pretends to be dead to the world and to the 
things thereof. I step up to him, call him a great sin- 
ner, a deceiver, a lazy-bones, that ought to use the 
sound limbs his Maker has given him to earn an honest 
livelihood. I hope to rouse his anger at least, if I do 
nothing better, to prove to the people that he is not 
quite as unlmpressible as he pretends to be ; but there 
is no sign of life. His features betray no displeasure. 
I might as well scold the rock on which he lies. The 
bystanders now speak for him, and tell me that he has 
been lying there till the rock is worn away. But I 
point out to them the marks of the chisel with which 
the rock has been hollowed out to admit the body so as 
to keep it from sliding down the hill. They smile and 
admit the fact, but for all that they continue to worship 
him and to bring their offerings. We turn away and 
find another fakir hung up by the feet from the branch 
of a low tree, head downward, swinging slowly over a 
smoking fire of cowdung. And again, another is squat- 
ting down on the ground, who has accustomed himself 
to swallow his breath. A gurgling noise in the throat 
and violent, spasmodic movement of the neck and upper 
part of the body, are enough to send you away from so 
disgusting a sight, but only to cast your eyes up to a 
fat, naked fakir riding on a huge elephant caparisoned 
with beautiful gold-embroidered, scarlet coverings, while 
another from behind is fanning him with a large palm- 
leaf Voluntary poverty and untold wealth thus go 
hand in hand with this class of saints. But heathenism 



HINDU FESTIVALS, 171 

is made up of inconsistencies, and we cease to wonder 
at anything after a while. 

BRAHMANS AND THEIR TRICKS. 
" If the eye refuses to look any longer at loathsome 
sights as exhibited here, the ear is no less tried with the 
filthy, noisy, unbecoming conversation that is going on. 
Abusive language grates upon the ear everywhere. A 
number of Brahmans, with large books under their 
arms, are lining the road and are watching for new pil- 
grims coming in. Two of these gentlemen have de- 
scried a well-to-do party travelling in ox-carts, and are 
trying to outrun each other so as to meet them first. 
Each one insists that the forefathers of the family whom 
he accosts are registered in his book, and each insists 
on receiving now a fresh registering fee. They are not 
sparing in mutual abuse, each one calling the other a 
liar and a deceiver, and no doubt both are right. There 
is, however, no way of escape ; both must be paid off 
with a gift, and the party is glad enough to get off so 
cheaply ; but they will soon fall into the hands of oth- 
ers equally grasping. 

A WONDERFUL MEDLEY. 
" There are long rows of booths erected, in which 
merchandise of every kind is offered for sale ; for though 
the primary object of the mela is a religious one, the 
opportunity for speculators is too good to be lost. A 
large bazaar, therefore, offers all that a native thinks 
worth bringing. There are articles of clothing, shawls. 



172 EVERY-DA Y LIFE IN INDIA. 

jewelry, trinkets, shoes, pipes, tobacco, idols, books, 
pictures, food, confectionery, all thickly covered with 
dust ; for dust is an article you get here in abundance, 
whether you will have it or not. A dozen carrousels^ 
or merry-go-rounds, overburdened with men, women, 
and children, are swinging round vigorously, and for 
want of oil, make an unbearable squeaking noise. 
Rope-dancers, snake-charmers, jugglers, bear-wards, 
monkey-leaders, all draw large circles of spectators, 
who seem to be quite unconscious of the inconvenience 
they create in obstructing the passages, while men, 
women, children, fantastically dressed-up fakirs, fat 
Brahmans, dancing-girls, policemen, soldiers, ox-carts, 
elephants, camels, horses, donkeys, half-starved dogs, 
pass back and forward in wild confusion. What pen 
could draw a complete picture of all that passes before 
the eye, and of the bustle of the hundreds of thousands, 
shouting, laughing, vociferating, quarrelling, to be out- 
done only by that ear-splitting, most disharmonious, 
monotonous music that heads procession after proces- 
sion? One must have seen such scenes to form an 
idea of what a mela in India is. 

"The noise is insufferable and the air suffocating. 
A fearfully hot Indian sun is pouring down a continu- 
ous stream of fire, not to be moderated, even for a mo- 
ment, by a passing cloud or the shade of a tree. The 
umbrellas with which we try to protect our heads are 
twisted into all sorts of shapes. Scarcely have we got 
disentangled from one throng, when we are involved 
again in another. Is there no quiet place here where 



HINDU FESTIVALS. 173 

we may again collect our thoughts and once more be 
masters of our senses ? Yes, there at the edge of the 
vast encamping ground ; come, let us seek rest there. 

THE MISSIONARY AND THE FIVE ELEMENTS OF 
RELIGION. 

" But who is coming in there ? A European ; and 
there is another. You know them at once by their for- 
eign dress and their complexion. They are men of 
grave countenance ; from a distance they look at the 
spectacle, but it seems to make them sad. They too 
look up a spot suitable to pitch their camp, but not in 
the midst of din and noise, for they need quiet, not so 
much for themselves as for the business they are going 
to do here at the mela. Their ox-cart has arrived, a 
tent is taken down and pitched ; boxes, one, two, three, 
are carried into the tent. They contain articles of clo- 
thing, food, cooking vessels, dishes for the use of these 
foreigners ; also a folding-table, two camp-chairs, and a 
something with four legs, by courtesy called a bedstead. 
Two heavy cases are still on the cart ; with the aid of 
some helping hands from the crowd they are taken 
down and carried to the door of the tent. * No,' shouts 
the foreigner, ' not into the tent ; we will put them down 
here outside the tent. They are not for our use, they 
are for the people.' 

" On their signboard you read, * Ho, every one that 
thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no 
money ; come ye, buy and eat ; yea, come, buy wine 
and milk, without money and without price. Where- 



1 74 E VER Y-DA Y LIFE IN INDIA, 

fore do ye spend money for that which is not bread ? 
and your labor for that which satisfieth not ? Hearken 
diHgently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and 
let your soul delight itself in fatness.' These two heavy 
cases contain Scriptures and tracts ; those two foreign- 
ers are missionaries, who have come to this mela with a 
commission from their Master, * Go ye and teach all 
nations. Teach them to observe all things whatsoever 
I have commanded you.' 

" The missionary, his dress, his tent and its belong- 
ings, have all long been scrutinized by the crowd, and 
are made the subject of remark without any reserve. 
To draw attention away from these things and to direct 
it to the main object of his visit, the missionary pulls 
from his pocket a large colored sheet, and unfolding it 
he reads out, in the language of the people, ' The five 
elements of religion.' The figure five is an important 
one to the Hindu. He believes the universe to be con- 
structed of five elements, earth, water, fire, air, and the 
heavens. The missionary now proclaims ' the five ele- 
ments of the true religion:' i. God is Lord; 2. Man 
is a sinner ; 3. Punishment of hell awaits him ; 4. Jesus 
is Saviour; 5. Faith is the condition.' He explains 
more fully the meaning of these five points ; he shows 
up the folly of idolatry, the wickedness of sinning against 
a holy and righteous God, the danger of encountering 
the wrath of the living God. He speaks of the helping 
hand that is stretched out toward the sinner in sending 
Jesus Christ to save him from sin, and insists on the 
importance of repentance and faith in that Saviour. As 



HINDU FESTIVALS. 175 

soon as the one is tired the other missionary takes up 
the subject, and then follow the native assistants with 
their discourses. Preaching is thus kept up till even- 
ing. The boxes of books and tracts have been opened 
in the meantime, and the contents are offered for sale at 
a nominal price. Thus many a pilgrim carries in his 
hand to a distant home, that may never have been 
reached yet by a messenger of the truth, the testimony 
on the printed page, and in his heart conviction of sin, 
afid in his mind a doubt of the all-sufficiency of the 
Ganges. The missionaries and their catechists thus 
work day after day, while the mela lasts, from morning 
till night, each one taking his turn. 

A MOTLEY CROWD. 

** There is no lack of hearers ; but the audiences 
change in the course of the day a hundred times. You 
watch the different countenances ; some evidently hsten 
with much interest, some appear quite indifferent ; some 
seem to be deeply in earnest, others walk away with 
a smile of contempt; some nod approval, others in 
going off call it a lie and the preacher a cheat. Brah- 
mans now take up their weapons of defence ; they begin 
to fear that thus the walls of Jericho may become under- 
mined after all ; their craft is in danger. The attacks 
of the missionary are directed as much against them as 
against their religious system. They force him into a 
discussion, and though they are beaten off on one point, 
they have a hundred others in reserve. They know lit- 
tle of the rules of propriety, and their remarks are sea- 



176 E VER Y-DA V LIFE IN INDIA. 

soned with bitter invective, calculated to vex the Chris- 
tian preacher, and to take him off his guard and provoke 
him to angry retorts. A Mohammedan, though in prin- 
ciple agreeing with all that the missionary says against 
idol-worship, is yet filled with envy at seeing the crowd 
listening to the preaching of salvation through Christ. 

" The great day of the feast has come, and it is the 
last day. The multitude is now swelled to an incredi- 
ble size. All press eagerly forward to the banks of the 
river for the last time. Once more every one bathes in 
the muddy water, the men almost entirely naked, the 
women with a sheet around them. The face Is turned 
toward the sun ; both hands being filled with water are 
raised above their heads, and the water is allowed to 
flow slowly down into the river. The body Is rubbed 
down ; once more it is dipped down in the water, a dry 
cloth is thrown around the shoulders, the wet one that 
has dropped underneath is washed and wrung out, and 
away the bathers go, chatting and laughing as they 
came. 

" At the large festivals the throng in the water Is so 
great that the older and weaker people have a hard 
time in getting back to dry ground. They are pushed 
farther and farther into the stream, and there have 'been 
Instances where such were carried away by the current. 
What does it signify ? Is not this the gate of heaven ? 
He that dies here obtains mukti — mukti, that undefined 
good ; exemption from a painful existence In some low 
animal after death, absorption in the deity, without self- 
consciousness, as the drop is absorbed In the ocean. 



HINDU FESTIVALS. 177 

"■ The Brahmans are still busy, eager to gather gifts, 
to give counsel, and to strip the poor. An old woman 
totters down the bank and opens a knot in the corner 
of her garment. A few pieces of bone and an old de- 
cayed tooth are deposited in the bed of the river ; they 
are all that remained after the body of her lord had been 
burned. The Brahmans are around her and ease her, 
if not of her sorrow, of her money certainly. She has 
none to defend her. 

" There lies a poor wretch in praying attitude before 
a cow, to whom he has offered some yellow flowers. Be- 
hind her are the Brahmans preparing some nasty pills 
of the five products of the cow, which the man is to 
swallow in order to be restored to his caste, from which 
he has been suspended for touching unwittingly some 
forbidden food, or drinking from the waterpot of a low- 
caste man. Another in a similar prostrate position is 
receiving absolution for a horrible crime committed. 
His cow had been sick, and he was advised to get her 
bled. He had called in a Mussulman veterinarian to 
perform the operation. After this the cow seemed to 
get better, rose up, and ate ; but two days afterward she 
dropped down and died. The village Brahman pro- 
nounced the owner guilty of cow-slaughter, and sen- 
tenced him to go on pilgrimage to the Ganges, with 
two hundred rupees to pay the Brahmans who hold the 
keys of heaven and hell, commencing of course with 
the village Brahman. He had not the money, but could 
borrow it at 24 per cent, interest, and in doing this had 

to mortgage his house and fields to the money-dealer. 
20 



178 EVERY'DA Y LIFE IN INDIA, 

" There are Brahmans who ought to have been here 
at the mela, but have failed to make their appearance. 
They had been commissioned by some relations of a 
deceased person to take the few remaining pieces of 
bone to the Ganges. They started with all due cere- 
mony, but buried the bones in the next grave, and are 
sitting at ease in a neighboring village waiting for the 
proper time to return. The people themselves will 
show you with a smile the little mole-hills where the 
bones are buried, and tell you their origin. 

" The throng has grown thicker and thicker, the 
noise greater and more oppressive, the heat more in- 
tense, the minds of the pilgrims more besotted, their 
pockets more empty, and those of the Brahmans more 
heavy. But these go home with a light heart and a 
cheerful countenance. They can afford to pass by the 
tent of the missionaries with a contemptuous sneer, 
ignoring the efforts of these faithful preachers of right- 
eousness, seeing that the whole world had been here 
to pay homage to the Ganges. 

" A few articles are now gathered up by the pil- 
grims, tied in a bundle, and thrown over the shoulder ; 
but each one carries in his hand a large bottle of Gan- 
ges water. It is stored carefully away at home, for it is 
good in cases of sickness, it is required in idol-worship, 
it is needed for the dead and the dying." 



AMUSEMENTS. 179 



XIX. AMUSEMENTS. 

To say that Hindus are fond of amusements is but 
to say that they are Hke the rest of mankind. We have 
never yet known any race, tribe, or nation — no, not 
even an individual in his right mind, who was not fond 
of amusements. It does not follow, however, that all 
are amused by the same thing, and this is true of nations 
as well as of individuals. 

The Hindus' idea of amusement is bound up with 
show, noise, and a crowd. The expressive word tamasha 
which is used all over India, meaning show, display, 
pomp, and what we have to express by such phrases as 
"a brilliant performance," and "a grand occasion," 
carries with it the Hindus' idea of amusement. To 
quiet indoor games or social family amusements the 
Hindus are but little addicted. Though they are not 
altogether without these, it is a question whether they 
do not consider sitting quietly on the doorstep or 
sprawling full length on a palm -leaf mat a much greater 
source of enjoyment than chess, checkers, backgammon, 
and similar games can furnish. But let a marriage- 
procession, with its ear-rending music, come along, or a 
native rajah, with his retinue of superannuated elephants, 
lame camels, and skeleton horses enter the town, and 
every man, woman, and child will be on tiptoe. 

The American circus would strike the very keynote 
of a Hindu's enjoyment, and the enterprising Yankee 



l8o EVERY'DA Y LIFE IN INDIA. 

who gets up a cheap and showy "world renowned 
moral exhibition" of this kind for India, will make his 
fortune. The numerous 

RELIGIOUS FESTIVALS 
of India are little more than merry-making occasions 
for the mass of the people. The religious feature of 
these festivals takes but little hold upon them. On 
these days — and their name is legion — the houses are 
decorated, work is suspended, and all, from the least to 
the greatest, put on their costliest jewels and gaudiest 
attire and have " a good time generally." If the occa- 
sion demands a special offering to the gods or some 
other unusual religious ceremonies, these are performed 
in a routine manner which affects but little the general 
merrymaking of the day. The periodical gatherings at 
sacred shrines, when thousands of people come from 
near and from far, are also of the same amusement- 
yielding kind, and it must not be supposed that the 
thousands of devoted pilgrims, of whom we hear so 
much, are heavily oppressed by the solemnity of the 
occasion. 

Among the most prominent, therefore, of the Hindus' 
amusements are their numerous religious feasts and 
festivals. 

FIREWORKS AND NAUTCHES 
delight a Hindu crowd immensely. Weddings, festi- 
vals, and other special occasions generally reach their 
culmination in a grand display of fireworks. 

Among their great yearly festivals is one called the 



AMUSEMENTS, l8l 

Lamplighting Festival, which throws into the shade 
even the American Fourth of July pyrotechnical dis- 
plays. Then little earthen lamps illumine every house 
in every street of every village throughout the land, 
while the air reechoes with the noise of rockets, fire- 
crackers and fireworks of a thousand other devices. 

Nautches — that is, the performances of dancing 
women — are so thoroughly appreciated by the natives 
themselves that they can think of no higher honor to 
their European friends than to invite them to an enter- 
tainment of this kind. To most Europeans, however, 
the angular movements, unnatural contortions, and dis- 
cordant screaming of these dancing women are monoto- 
nous and disgusting — not to say anything of the 
objections to such entertainments on moral grounds. 

WRESTLING. 
Though Hindus do not engage much in athletic 
sports of any kind, yet when a wresthng match comes 
off — a not unusual affair in the larger villages and 
towns — the people turn out by the thousand to see it. 
The excitement is intense. Wagers are laid, and the 
victor receives a handsome prize. The defeated wrestler 
retires from the field in disgrace, slinks quietly out of 
the crowd and appears on the streets of the town where 
he was vanquished never again or as seldom as possible. 

ACROBATIC PERFORMANCES 
are common and exceedingly well done. Companies of 
acrobats — men, women, and children — travel from place 



1 82 E VER Y-DA V LIFE IN INDIA. 

to place carrying with them the poles, ropes, etc., 
needed for their performance. Wherever a paying 
audience can be made up they perform. Their feats 
are very much the same and quite as skilful as those of 
gymnasts in other countries. 

JUGGLERY. 

The Indian jugglers are far-famed, and justly so. 
They stand, probably, at the head of their profession the 
world over. Most of our Western legerdemain tricks 
are ridiculously clumsy in comparison with the perfor- 
mances of the Indian juggler. His tricks are the more 
wonderful and the less explainable, because he has 
scarcely any clothing on with which to assist himself. 
What explanation can you offer when a man with bare 
arms, bare legs, and bare body, except a narrow cloth 
about his loins, appears before you, shows you his 
hands which you admit to be empty, reaches down and 
picks up a few pebbles, rubs them for a little while in 
the palms of his hands and then instead of the pebbles 
throws down a silver rupee ? He shows you his bare 
hands again, picks up the rupee, pretends to break it in 
two, and then shows you a complete coin in each hand. 
Thus he goes on increasing the number of rupees until 
he has eight or ten, when he lets you examine them to 
satisfy yourself that they are genuine coins. 

One of their favorite performances is the " Basket 
Trick." A basket is produced which is apparently 
empty. It is turned upside down, and after a litde 
speech or a song by the performer, it is lifted up, when 



. AMUSEMENTS. 183 

a cat jumps out. The cat is caught and put back under 
the basket. The song or speech is repeated, the basket 
is again Hfted, when, lo, a httle dog appears, and no cat 
is. visible. The dog is put back under the basket and 
after a few minutes he comes forth as the mother of a 
Utter of puppies. Next the mysterious animal appears 
as a jackal or it may be as a goat or pig. 

The Indian juggler's tricks are many and "dark;" 
they are performed in the open air, on the ground at 
the very feet of his audience, and without the aid of 
curtains, tables, boxes, clothing, etc., which are so neces- 
sary in Western lands. Snake- charming is an impor- 
tant branch of the Indian juggler's business, and in this 
also he is an adept. 

SONGS AND STORIES 
are a source of popular amusement worth mentioning. 
These generally relate the exploits of some gods, reveal 
the wisdom of some ancient sage, the uprightness of 
some famous king, or the folly of certain courses of life 
and conduct. While many of these songs and stories 
are coarse and even indecent, others are exceedingly 
interesting and striking, conveying precepts in a form 
easily remembered. In a country where but few com- 
paratively can read, a peculiar interest attaches to pop- 
ular exercises of this kind. Except in the cities and 
larger towns dramatical performances are not common. 
Hunting as an amusement is almost totally unknown 
among Hindus, and their horror of taking life is so deep- 
rooted and so strong that the Englishman's propensity 



1 84 E VER Y-DA Y LIFE IN INDIA . 

for hunting as an amusement is utterly incomprehensible 
to them. 

Among children the amusements very strikingly 
resemble those of Western lands. There is this dis- 
tinction, however, that the more manly outdoor games 
of boys are almost unknown here. Marble-playing is 
very common; "Pussy wants a Corner," "Hide and/ 
Seek," "Blind Man's Buff," "Suggins," "Odd and' 
Even," etc., are played here by the youngsters very 
much as in Europe and America. 



NIGHT-LIFE. 185 



XX. HIGHT-LIFE. 

The night-life of India is a feature both new and in- 
teresting to the European. The days being for the most 
part exceedingly hot and oppressive, while the nights 
are cool and refreshing, it is not strange that the latter 
should receive much of the life and activity which in 
other countries belong to the former. The beautiful 
moonlight, charming beyond description, and clear 
enough for reading and writing, is both a wonder and a 
delight to us of northern latitudes. 

Night in India is not only the time for sleep, but 
also for eating and for travelling. The heaviest meal of 
the day is the evening meal. The preparation of this 
is often not begun until after dark, and frequently it is 
not eaten until near midnight. 

Among Europeans, too, the chief meal of the day is 
the dinner, which is seldom over much before nine 
o'clock. 

The evening meal over, travellers, burden-bearers, 
bandy-drivers, and all others who have a journey before 
them, get ready to start, and soon along the public 
highways may be heard the plaintive chant of the palen- 
keen-bearers, the harsh creaking of loaded carts, the 
monotonous tolling of bullock-bells, the boisterous vo- 
ciferation of bandy-drivers, and now and then the melo- 
dious tinkling of the fleet-foot post-runners' bells. 

The activity of the night is by no means confined 
21 



i86 EVERY'DA V LIFE IN INDIA. 

to travellers. Dogs and cats, Brahmani bulls, don- 
keys and stray buffaloes, hyenas and jackals, bats and 
frogs, snakes and lizards, gnats and mosquitoes, are 
especially wide awake between sunset and sunrise, and 
add in various ways their portion to the music of the 
night. 

The resident soon becomes familiar with this state of 
things, and quite unconscious of the discordant sounds, 
he sleeps as calmly, with mice and bats and lizards 
frisking about his bedroom, as ever he did in his infant 
cradle. 

To a new-comer, however, the confusion of sounds 
and the familiarity of some members of the animal king- 
dom are intolerable. A late eminent English visitor to 
India* records his first experience of night-life in an 
Indian camp as follows : 

" With difficulty I gain the border-land between conscious- 
ness and unconsciousness. What is that sound, half snort, 
half snuffle, close to my head ? I start and sit up. Can it be 
the Brahmani bull which I saw iust before dinner roaming 
about at large in full enjoyment of a kind of sacred indepen- 
dence ? Cautiously and guardedly I open my mosquito-cur- 
tains, intending to seize the nearest weapon of defence. 
Clink, clink ! clank, clank ! Thank goodness ! that must be 
the guard parading close to my tent ; and, sure enough, there 
are sounds of a rush and a chase, and a genuine bull's bel- 
low, which gradually diminish and fade away in the distance. 
Again I compose myself, but as night advances begin to be 
painfully aware that a number of other strange sounds are 
intensifying outside and inside my tent — croaks, squeaks, 
grunts, chirps, hums, buzzes, whizzes, whistles, rustles, flut- 

* Monier Williams' " India and the Indians." 



' NIGHT-LIFE, 187 

ters, scuffles, scampers, and nibbles. ' Harmless sounds pro- 
ceeding from harmless creatures !' I reason with myself. A 
toad is attracted by the water in my bathroom, a rat has 
scented out my travelling biscuits, mosquitoes and moths are 
trying to work their way through my curtains, a vampire bat 
is hanging from the roof of my tent, crickets and grasshop- 
pers are making themselves at home on my floor. ' Quite 
usual, of course,' I say to myself, * in these hot climates, and 
quite to be expected.' Ah, but that hissing sound ! Do not 
cobras hiss ? The hissing subsides, and is succeeded by a 
melancholy moan. Is that the hooting of an owl ? No ! the 
moan has changed to a prolonged yell, increasing in an alarm- 
ing manner. Yell is taken up by yell, howl by howl. Awful 
sounds come from all directions. Surely a number of peas- 
ants are being murdered in the adjoining fields. I am bound 
to get up and rush to the rescue. No, no, I remember. I 
saw a few jackals slinking about the camp in the evening." 

As a rule, Europeans' bungalows are wide open at 
night. Fastened windows, barred doors, locks and 
keys are unknown. Doors and windows stand wide 
open to admit of the free passage of air. During the 
greater part of the year the punkah-pullers may be 
seen squatting on the verandas, who, while they fan the 
sleeping inmates, act also as a kind of mild guard to 
the house. One or two servants may also be sleeping 
within calling distance ; but precautions against house- 
breaking, burglars, thieves, and tramps, such as are 
needed in some Western countries, are not even thought 
of by European residents in India. Our security rests 
not so much upon the honesty of the people as upon 
their general fear of Europeans. 

The houses being thus open, it may be imagined 
that animals of a domestic turn of mind, such as dogs, 



1 88 E VER Y-DA V LIFE IN INDIA . 

cats, mice, bats, frogs, lizards, snakes, scorpions, and 
mosquitoes, make themselves readily at home with us. 
So they do, and the night adventures which the old 
Anglo-Indian can relate, or the number of such adven- 
tures which any company of Anglo-Indians can furnish 
to while away an after-dinner hour, can scarcely be out- 
done by " snake-stories " in any other part of the world. 
One has had his finger-tips eaten away by hungry 
mice ; another has been horrified to find a cobra sus- 
pended from the thatch roof above his bed ; another has 
woke up to find a hyena standing before his bed ; while 
to have heard the tread of cows, bullocks, or buffaloes, 
in various parts of the house is too common an occur- 
rence to be worth relating. A lady of our acquaintance 
awoke to find a huge Pariah dog dragging her infant 
out of its crib, and another one was almost suffocated 
by a monstrous bat which had taken the liberty of light- 
ing on her face. 

The writer himself had a huge black scorpion for a 
bedfellow one night; and a friend of his awoke one 
morning to find a snake comfortably coiled upon his 
breast ! 

The ubiquitous, independent, self-supporting, ever- 
cheerful 

MOSQUITO 

here as elsewhere carries off the palm as a night-pest. 
This animal has a sore grievance against punkahs. 
When these are swinging, as they are for about half the 
year in Europeans' houses, the business of the mosquito 
is at a low ebb. Unless he can during the day hide 



NIGHT-LIFE, 189 

himself under the bedding, and stealing" out at night 
ambush about in such a manner as to escape the cur- 
rents of air, he is soon carried away. Sitting on the 
tip of your nose — his favorite seat — is quite out of the 
question. But the wily creature is not to be daunted. 
For six long months will he sit, night after night, with 
open, watchful eyes, waiting for the punkah-puller to 
drop asleep or the rope to break, when in the twinkling 
of an eye he lights on his beloved prey, breaks forth in 
songs of joy, and makes the best of his opportunities, 
until the sleeping punkah-puller has been aroused or 
the defective machinery put right. 

During the cool season, when punkahs are not need- 
ed, the battle has to be waged by means of curtains, 
sulphur fumes, and kerosene. 

RED ANTS. 
Another most annoying night-pest Is a little red ant, 
which, though not gifted with wings, has a marvellous 
instinct for finding its way into the presence of sleeping 
people. The punkah has no terrors for it. Its bite is 
out of all proportion to its size, and unless caught and 
demolished, a single one of these diminutive creatures 
may keep a large man from sleep a whole night. Their 
number is not limited to one or to one dozen. The 
facility with which they can recruit their ranks from 
one or two to as many thousand is an entomological 
study. To make a break in the highways of these lit- 
tle enemies to human rest and quietness it Is necessary 
to have the legs of cots set in dishes of water, or to have 



I90 EVERY-DA Y LIFE IN INDIA. 

them bound with strings dipped in strong-smelling oils. 
These ants, like the mosquitoes, seem to have genu- 
ine Hindu patience, and will wait in quiet readiness any 
length of time in the hope of finding the corner of a 
sheet or blanket which may accidentally reach to the 
floor, when their train is at once set in motion, and they 
begin their march with all the decorum and eagerness 
of an army marching to battle. 
Night is the lavorable time for 

PROCESSIONS. 
Then, with the torchlights, the music, the idol-car, and 
the motley boisterous crowd, the Hindu seems to be in 
an ecstasy of delight. Some of these night processions 
are brilliant beyond description, and during the more 
important festivals they are kept up for many nights in 
succession. But, festival or no festival, procession or 
no procession, the tom-tom is seldom silent. Poor in- 
deed must be the Indian village which cannot afford 
one or more of these, while in the towns they seem to 
be innumerable, and those who beat them never weary. 
To the new-comer the monotonous drum-drum of this 
instrument is very annoying, and we have known deli- 
cate European ladies to be driven into hysterics by its 
unending dolorous noise. For a while it is sure to 
keep one awake through the early part of the night, but 
residents soon become used to it, and in fact get to like 
it when accompanied by other musical instruments. 

It is much the same with all the strange sights and 
sounds of India, whether they belong to the day or to 



NIGHT-LIFE. 191 

the night. At first they surprise, annoy, or please, as 
the case may be, but soon they lose their novelty, we 
accommodate ourselves to inconveniences, and after a 
few years' residence it is only by calling in memory to 
aid us in drawing a comparison that we are enabled to 
call anything strange or peculiar. 



192 E VER Y-DA Y LIFE IN INDIA , 



XXI. TRAYELIxINa. 

Railroads and canals are fast taking the place of 
the old forms of travelling in India. Still, the modes 
peculiar to the country are yet sufficiently prevalent to 
warrant us in giving a chapter to thei;: description. 

On account of the heat and glare of the sun during 
the day, travelling is done principally by night. Espe- 
cially is this the case on the part of Europeans. For- 
merly considerable travelling was done by means of 
elephants and camels, but except in the hill districts or 
fo'r the purpose of display on the part of native princes, 
this mode of travelling is obsolete. 

THE PALENKEEN, 
which ranks next in respectability and expense. Is still 
used extensively by well-to-do natives and Europeans. 
In some parts of the country it is the only conveyance 
available for Europeans. 

The palenkeen is simply a long box with poles at 
both ends. It is from six to seven feet in length, about 
three feet wide, and three feet high. The poles extend 
about five feet beyond the box at each end, making a 
total length of sixteen or seventeen feet. It is carried 
on the shoulders of men — three or four being required 
at each end under the terminal poles. To protect their 
shoulders they use small pads. The body of the palen- 
keen has sliding doors at the sides for entering it, while 



TRAVELLING, 195 

the top is waterproof. If necessary the whole can be 
securely closed against rain and dust. On the floor are 
laid a mattress, pillow, etc. The occupant can lie down 
or sit.up at pleasure, 'but he cannot rise to his feet. 

If the bearers are well trained there ought to be but 
little rocking of the palenkeen. Except a gentle sway- 
ing from side to side there is but little motion to disturb 
the traveller, and after he gets used to the peculiar sing- 
song noise which the bearers keep up, he can go quietly 
to sleep as he is borne along at the rate of five or six 
miles an hour. Ten or twelve coolies, besides the torch- 
bearer, are required to carry a palenkeen when the 
journey is a long one. They do not all carry at the 
same time, but change about, some carrying while the 
others run along and — rest. In the way of remunera- 
tion each bearer gets a dub (about one cent) a mile by 
the usual rates. Europeans generally supplement this 
by a present when they have been well served. The 
new-comer cannot free himself of the idea that there is 
something cruel in this mode of travelling, and the 
mournful chant of the bearers helps to emphasize this 
impression. The way to look at it, however, is from 
the coolies' side, and if they do not regard it as cruel, 
but on the other hand are glad of the employment 
which furnishes food for themselves and their families, 
there is no reason why any one should shun palenkeen 
travelling out of consideration for the bearers. 

Owing to the large number of bearers required, 

palenkeen travelling is rather expensive. A cheaper 

and more convenient conveyance for short distances is 
22 



196 E VERY-DA Y LIFE IN INDIA. 

THE TONJON. 
This is also carried by bearers, but being much 
lighter, a smaller number is required. It has also the 
advantage of allowing the occupant to sit up more»com- 
fortably than he can do in the palenkeen. It is like the 
latter in having poles at each end, but the box or frame 
in which the traveller sits is constructed after the manner 
of an easy-chair. Curtains are provided on each side 
which can be drawn at pleasure to exclude the sun or 
rain. The tonjon is much used for travelling short 
distances, as in making calls, going to and coming from 
office, going shopping and the like, but for long journeys 
it is not so well suited, as the occupant cannot lie down 
in it. 

THE PUSH-PUSH. 

This is a vehicle on wheels, pushed by one or two 
coolies, and is used only for short distances on good 
roads. It has four wheels, and the body of it is con- 
structed like a buggy. It will carry two persons com- 
fortably. This is one of the least expensive of Indian 
travelling conveyances, and it is rapidly finding favor 
among European residents to whom the saving of 
money is a consideration, as well as among natives. 

THE BULLOCK-BANDY 
is after all the great stand-by and the strictly orthodox 
conveyance. The ordinary two-wheeled country cart, 
resembling on the whole the common stone-cart of 
America, is frequently used even by Europeans. A cover- 
ing is made of palmyra-leaf mats tied over bamboo bows, 



TRA YELLING. 197 

and thus prepared it reminds one of the well-known 
Pennsylvania emigrant wagon. Having only two 
wheels, the " bed" is, of course, much smaller. A deep 
layer of straw answers the purpose of springs, and as 
bullocks are exceedingly moderate in their speed the 
jolting is not very annoying unless the roads are un- 
usually bad. Such a cart holds only one traveller com- 
fortably, and it can make a journey of twenty or twenty- 
five miles in a night without a change of bullocks. 

If speed is desired, relays of bullocks are arranged 
along the route, six or eight miles apart. With such 
relays and a liberal amount of beating, threatening, 
coaxing, exhorting, twisting of tails, and sundry other 
incentives to activity on the part of the driver, a bullock- 
bandy may be taken along good roads at the rate of 
four or five miles an hour. 

A style of bandy called, by considerable stretch of 
imagination, 

A BULLOCK COACH, 
is much in use among Europeans. Like the common 
cart it has two large wheels, but unlike it, it has springs, 
a permanent top, and various other details of comfort 
and convenience which raise it quite out of the company 
of common bandies, and which are supposed to entitle 
it to the high-sounding name of " Coach." The cover- 
ing, besides being water-proof, is also made as much as 
possible sun-proof by means of thick layers of cotton. 
The seats are so arranged that by a little unfolding they 
are changed into a comfortable bed. Various boxes, 
drawers, and sacks for storing books, provisions, and 



198 E VER Y-DA Y LIFE IN INDIA. 

other travelling necessaries also find a place in the first- 
class bullock-coach, and thus provided and supplied it 
is altogether the most comfortable mode of travelling in 
India, and preferred by most people to the palenkeen. 

Among natives various other devices of locomotion 
are in use. Riding a horse or pony, no matter how 
miserably lean or crippled the animal may be, is con- 
sidered a very honorable mode of travelling. In fact 
anything is honorable which keeps them from walking, 
and some of the patched-up, rickety conveyances which 
are kept up as a sign of the respectability of the owners 
would be a valuable addition to .Barnum's world-re- 
nowned wonders. 

Good horses are imported into India from Australia 
and other countries, but they are kept principally for 
pleasure driving and riding. Horses are far inferior to 
bullocks for night travelling, and are consequently but 
little used in India for long journeys. Railroads, which 
now connect all the principal cities and towns, are ex- 
tensively patronized by natives of all classes, but 

THE CANAL-BOAT 
seems far better suited to their wants, nature and 
habits. 

A native is never on time, and he abhors all institu- 
tions which work on time. Now, a canal-boat in India 
never either starts on time, runs on time, or arrives on 
time. If perchance such a thing should happen as one 
starting on time, the left passengers can run after and 
overtake it. With railroad- cars it is different. The 




BULLOCK BAND^. 




^^^^ft^^^^^s-:^^^ 



BULLOCK COACH. 



TEA VELLING. 20l 

canal-boat in all its features suits a Hindu. He can 
dreamily sit gazing into the water for hours, which of 
itself is one of his choice enjoyments. No distracting 
hurry, fuss, and worry belong to the canal. No shoving, 
crowding, pushing, and starvation such as he encounters 
in railway travel. If the boat sticks fast in low water he 
considers it a pleasant variety, and he is far too phil- 
osophic to vex his soul by fretting over a wasted day or 
even over a lost week. 

TRAVELLERS' BUNGALOWS 
deserve a mention in this connection. These are 
buildings erected along the main highways, owned by 
government and reserved for the use of European trav- 
ellers. A servant is kept in charge of the building, and 
when a traveller arrives he throws open the doors and 
windows and gives him the use of the room and such 
furniture as may be on hand. In consideration of which 
the traveller pays a small fee, and goes away grumbling 
on account of the imperfect accommodations, or thank- 
ful for even so much shelter, according as he may be 
inclined to look either upon the dark or the bright side 
of life. 



202 E VER Y-DA V LIFE IN INDIA, 



XXII. SERYAKTS. 

Europeans living in India are obliged to keep a 
great number of servants. We say they are obliged to 
do so. It is not an extravagant luxury, but a sort of 
necessary evil from which most residents would gladly 
be freed if it were possible. What we mean is, that 
most of them would prefer a few good, all-manner-of- 
work servants to the whole company of Indian ser- 
vants whose ideas on the division-of-labor problem are 
too refined for Western appreciation. 

Even a very small family, living in quiet seclusion, 
must have at least half a dozen of these dusky attend- 
ants, while one which entertains and makes an attempt 
at stylish living must count them by the score. 

As Indian servants board and clothe themselves, 
and receive comparatively low wages, the cost of the 
whole troop of them is scarcely more than that of two 
or three domestics in Europe or America. 

What makes the keeping of so many servants a ne- 
cessity here is, first, the impracticability, owing to cli- 
mate, customs, etc., of Europeans doing much manual 
labor either within or out of doors ; and secondly, 
the immemorial custom which forbids a servant to do 
more than one particular kind of work. Over the 
first of these causes we have little or no control, and 
over the second one it is most foolish to fret ourselves. 



SERVANTS. 203 

The annoyance which having to do with such a 
number of servants causes us, we ought cheerfully to 
bear for the sake of being able to feed the greater num- 
ber of hungry mouths. In a country like India, where 
life among the poor means little else than a struggle for 
food, and where the laborers are so many and the in- 
dustries so few, it is a kind charity to provide work for 
the greatest possible number. To introduce labor-sav- 
ing machines or labor-saving customs, except for good 
economical reasons, is an unnecessary cruelty to the 
poor, willing laborers of the land. 

We look upon this matter of a multiplicity of ser- 
vants in a more favorable light, and rejoice in the com- 
bination of circumstances which makes it possible for 
one European family to furnish food for half a hundred 
mouths,* and for a dozen servants to share in peace and 
harmony the work which two would do in Europe or 
America. 

The servants of Europeans are as a rule Pariahs, 
Christians who have come from the Pariah classes, and 
Mohammedans. Very few female - servants are em- 
ployed, and the general term by which a servant is 
called, irrespective of age, size, or dignity, is " boy." 

The following is a somewhat full 

LIST OF SERVANTS, 

such as would be required by a high-grade European 
official with a family. The head-boy, cook, waterman, 

* A dozen servants are supposed to represent, with their 
wives, children, and other dependants, at least fifty persons. 



204 E VER Y-DA Y LIFE IN INDIA . 

sweeper, gardener, washerman, tailor, and ayah are 
absolutely necessary in all families. 

1. The Butler. This individual is rather more for 
ornament than for use. He is king over the rest of the 
servants, and at the same time a sort of prime minister 
to his master. In his own eyes and in those of the 
other servants he is an exalted personage. His chief 
business seems to be to walk to and from the bazaar 
carrying an umbrella as an emblem of greatness, write 
the household accounts, and appropriate a percentage 
of all money which passes through his hands. As for 
making himself useful in meaner ways, he would rather 
be flayed aHve or killed on the spot than degrade his 
dignity by washing dishes or carrying a market-basket. 
The butler is not particularly popular with European 
residents, and is frequently dispensed with. 

2. The Head-Boy. In the absence of a butler, the 
head-boy is chief among the servants. He is in fact a 
butler, but having a less pretentious name, he does not 
venture to put on such grand airs. He also is con- 
cerned about his dignity and influence, but will conde- 
scend to make himself somewhat useful. He goes to 
market — ^but of course carries no basket — makes pur- 
chases, writes up the accounts, superintends the kitchen, 
waits on the table, and makes himself generally useful 
in all " respectable business " about the house. 

3. The Maty. He is a sort of under head-boy, who 
dusts the furniture, cleans the plate, lays the table, waits 
at meals, and looks forward to the happy day when he 

, will be a head-boy or butler. 



SERVANTS, 205 

4. The Under-Maty is still a step lower in the 
scale, and his business is considered a little less respec- 
table, being to wash dishes, attend to the lamps, scour 
the knives, clean boots, etc. 

5. The Cook. This individual is of real practical 
use, and every household tries to secure a good one. 
He confines his attention chiefly to the kitchen. Where 
the number of servants is limited, he goes to market 
and assists about the house generally. Indian cooks 
are remarkably efficient, considering the difficulties un* 
der which they learn and carry on their work. With 
no stoves and the most primitive of cooking utensils, it 
is a wonder they can produce anything fit to see or eat* 
Notwithstanding all this, they get up the most dainty 
European dishes in a style which puts many a Western 
cook to shame. 

6. The Scullery-maid. Even this '* maid " is fre- 
quently a " boy." Generally, however, a woman, and 
the only one about the kitchen, is employed for this 
purpose. Besides washing cooking utensils, cleaning 
up about the kitchen, and keeping hot water ready at 
all hours, this servant looks after the poultry and assists 
in the care of the cows. 

7. The Waterman. He supplies the whole house- 
bathrooms, kitchen, and filters— with water. This he 
carries himself or brings on a bullock. 

8. The Tailor. Except in the large cities there are 
no public tailoring establishments. Every European 
family keeps a tailor as a regular servant. Indian tai- 
lors are adepts at making up after a pattern. In a coun- 

23 



206 E VER Y-DA Y LIFE IN INDIA. 

try where light clothing is worn and changed daily, the 
tailor finds not only plenty to do in making up new 
clothes, but also in mending the old. This latter work 
he is furnished abundantly by 

9. The Washerman, who takes your clothing to 
the tank, and by soaking it in Hme-water and afterwards 
striking it on rough stones, washes out at the same time 
dirt, color, and fibre with wonderful facility. The wash- 
erman is so important a character in our Indian life that 
we elsewhere devote a longer paragraph to him. 

10. The Dressing-Boy. This servant is frequently 
a half-grown boy. His principal requisites are neatness 
of person, a good memory, and a quiet, pleasant de- 
meanor. He has charge of his master's wardrobe, keeps 
accounts with the washerman of all clothing taken and 
returned, lays out his master's linen needed for the day, 
sees that the dressing-room is kept in order, that towels 
are clean, the bath ready at the proper time, brings his 
master his cheroot and fire to light it, puts the daily pa- 
per on the desk or in the easy- chair, and in every way 
attends to his master's personal wants. 

11. The Ayah. Where there are ladies and chil- 
dren, one or more ayahs are required. The ayah takes 
care of the children, and is to the mistress of the house 
what the dressing-boy is to the master. If sufficiently 
indulged, as is frequently the case, the ayah puts on 
dignity and airs, vying even with the butler. If kept 
in her proper place, treated kindly but firmly, a good 
ayah is a most useful servant, and does much to make 
the children cheerful and home pleasant. In most fam- 



SERVANTS. 207 

illes, especially if there be more than one child, a second 
or under-ayah is employed. 

12. The Sweeper. Sweepers are a class by them- 
selves, and ordinary Pariahs would starve rather than 
degrade themselves by doing this work. The sweeper, 
generally a woman, sweeps the house and attends to 
the bathrooms. 

13. The Horsekeeper. Turning to the stables, we 
shall want a horsekeeper for every horse. This is a 
point upon which the Indian servant strongly insists. 
One man will by no means consent to take care of more 
than one horse. However unreasonable this may seem 
to us, it does not strike the Indian horsekeeper in that 
light. In his eyes nothing could be more unreasonable 
than that he should be asked to concern himself about 
a second horse. 

14. The Coachman. Where there is the least pre- 
tension to style, a coachman has to be kept in addition 
to the various horsekeepers. Besides driving, he looks 
after the carriage and harness. 

15. The Gr ass-Cutters. For each horse there 
must be a grass-cutter, whose business it is to gather a 
bundle of grass every day. 

16. The Bullock-Man. For each yoke of bul- 
locks there must be a man, whose business it is to feed 
them, rub them down, and drive them when required. 

17. The Dog-Boy. Many Europeans in India keep 
a few English dogs. If so, a small boy is employed to 
prepare their food, wash them, and take them out for a 
daily walk. 



208 E VER Y-DA V LIFE IN INDIA . 

1 8. The Punkah -Pullers. During about half the 
year, both day and night, punkahs are required. One 
puller is necessary for the day and two for the night. 

19. The Gardeners. In the plains the raising of 
vegetables and the cultivation of flowers are attended 
with great care and difficulty. Water has to be poured 
on the plants daily, and frequently they have to be shel- 
tered from the sun. One or more gardeners are there- 
fore required to look after the garden and compound. 

20. The Herdsman. A man is required to look 
after the catde. He attends them while grazing, pre- 
pares their food and bedding, milks the cows, and makes 
the butter. 

THEIR QUALITIES. 

Indian servants are good, bad, or indifferent, accord- 
ing to the standard by which they are judged. If com- 
pared with ideal, faultless servants, they are bad; no 
doubt; if their good points are contrasted with the 
weak points of Bridget and Mike, they are paragons of 
perfection ; if on the whole they are compared with ser- 
vants in other countries, the result will not be unfavora- 
ble to them. 

One in search of defects can find them ; but one in 
search of good qualities will find a longer list. 

Indian servants are easily spoiled, and to manage 
quietly and well a whole dozen or more of them is not 
a chance accomplishment. 

Injudicious indulgence ruins them. By this we do 
not mean kindness. They are susceptible of kindness, 
but it must be very judiciously directed. Giving a meal 



SERVANTS. 209 

to a servant travelling with you when he is tired out and 
in want, is a kindness which he will appreciate and serve 
you better for it. Giving him milk, bread, and sugar 
while at home, is an indulgence which he will commem- 
orate the next day by stealing the same. Giving him 
medicine and rest in sickness is a kindness for which 
he will be grateful. Letting him loaf about the bazaar 
when he ought to be serving you is an indulgence for 
which he will think you silly. 

Faying him promptly and fully for his services is his 
due, and will encourage him. Praising him for simply 
doing his duty unsettles his mind and makes him think 
of higher wages. The idea that he is of any special use 
to you, which could not be as well supplied without 
him, is an unsafe one for him to entertain. He serves 
you best as long as he considers himself an " unprofita- 
ble servant." For this reason it is not well to ask a 
servant to remain with you who shows the least inclina- 
tion or intention to leave your service. 

The two prominent faults of Indian servants are 
lying and stealing. Even in these vices it is not the 
quality so much as the quantity which annoys. The 
lies in which they delight are not deep-laid schemes 
which are to end in the destruction of your hfe, fortune, 
or happiness. They are "litde" lies, which seem to 
spring up in spontaneous thoughtlessness to hide a fault 
or gain a point. 

The stealing is of the same mild form, and as con- 
stant. It is very seldom, and only of careless masters, 
that Indian servants steal money or articles of great 



2IO EVERY-DA V LIFE IN INDIA. 

value. It is a handful of sugar, a cupful of rice, a little 
oil, and a spoonful of ghee daily. At the end of the 
year it would, no doubt, foot up considerable, but from 
day to day it is so little that your annoyance is divided 
between the unpleasant task of having to quibble over 
such trifles and of knowing that the constant drain is 
going on. 

Over-charging in accounts is the second favorite 
way of increasing their gains. It is almost impossible 
for Europeans to do any of their marketing themselves, 
and should they venture into the bazaar to make their 
own purchases the merchants would at once add to their 
charges more severely than the servants. The matter 
of purchases must be left to a great extent to your ser- 
vants, and you must make the best of it you can. 

In hiding their attempts, both at peculation and 
speculation, they are adepts. You may be morally 
certain that you are being robbed and cheated a dozen 
times a day, but to prove the matter is a different thing 
and a very difficult one. 

In no other case have we ever felt our boasted 
" Yankee sharpness " of so little consequence as in 
trying to search out the devious ways of the "subtle" 
Hindu servant. 

So much for the dark side of the picture. In jus- 
tice to our subject let us look also at the bright side. 

Indian servants — we speak now of the rule and not 
of exceptions — are anxious to please their employers. 
To do this they will put themselves to the greatest incon- 
venience, ti ouble, and even pain. No matter how tired 



SERVANTS. 211 

or indisposed a servantmay be, he never thinks of him- 
self or his own wants until his master has been served. 

They are good-tempered. It is a rare sight to see 
a servant show signs of anger, irritability, or even impa- 
tience in the presence of his master. Although they 
may be wronged, it is a most unusual thing for them to 
" talk back." 

They are respectful. A servant may by repeated 
ill-usage on the part of a master ask for his discharge, 
but even under the most trying circumstances he will 
scarcely be disrespectful. Ordinarily with masters 
whom they like they are the very perfection of respect- 
ful politeness. 

They are neat and quiet. The neatness of appearance 
and the quiet gracefulness with which the servants of a 
well-ordered European home in India attend to their 
various duties, call forth the astonishment and admiration 
of all new-comers. Whether servants shall excel in this 
depends very much upon their master and mistress. 
Where they are properly encouraged by precept and 
example their proficiency in these qualities challenges 
universal admiration. 

They are remarkably trustworthy when made respon- 
sible for any property, the delivery of a message, etc. It 
is only when the chances of his power to hide the theft 
are strong, that the Indian servant's temptation to steal 
overcomes him. A poor cooly, though not owning a 
rupee himself, may be trusted to carry a thousand for 
his master. 

Indian servants are attentive in sickness. Many of 



212 EVERY'DA Y LIFE IN INDIA, 

them are good nurses and will watch with a sick master 
or mistress day and night for weeks with the greatest 
care and patience. This, too, with a quiet demeanor 
and an unobtrusiveness which would distinguish a 
Christian servant of Western lands. 

Europeans in India owe more of their daily comfort 
and happiness to their servants than they know how 
to appreciate or care to acknowledge. But for these 
faithful attendants life in this trying climate would be 
intolerable to us. The readiness with which they 
are found and the willingness with which they serve 
both tend to make us less appreciative of their efforts, 
and we should know their real worth only by being 
deprived of them. 



THE DEAD. 213 



XXIII. THE DEAD. 

The Hindus have not that sacred reverence for the 
dead which we should expect to find in connection 
with so religious a nature as theirs. 

Although there is no lack of religious ceremony in 
connection with the disposing of the dead among the 
higher castes, there are but few evidences that the 
memory of the departed is a subject over which those 
who remain delight to linger. Among the lower castes 
the utter unconcern for the dead after they are once out 
of sight is simply shameful. 

One searches in vain for quiet, beautiful cemeteries 
where loving hands keep green the graves of departed 
loved ones. Even native Christians are slow to take 
that reverent interest in the resting-place of their dead 
which characterizes Christians in other lands. There is 
however among them a growing appreciation of seclu- 
ded and well -cared -for graveyards which contrasts most 
favorably with the general apathy on this subject. 

Most, though not all, high-caste Hindus burn their 
dead. The place where this ceremony is performed is 
generally some desolate spot a short distance away 
from the village and contiguous to the general burying- 
ground. Instead of being enclosed and decently indi- 
cated as a place where the living perform the last 
service for their dead, it is strewn with bones and char- 
coal and is nightly visited by packs of jackals who are 
24 



214 EVERY-DAY LIFE IN INDIA. 

ever on the watch for the "remains" of the newly 
burned. The funeral ceremonies preceding the crema- 
tion of a Hindu are tedious and childish, but when the 
fire has once been kindled the body is soon consumed. 
From a sanitary point of view, cremation is far prefera- 
ble to burying, and the revulsion which we feel towards 
this mode of disposing of the dead is altogether incom- 
prehensible tat|ie Hindu. In his estimation burning is 
by far the more decent and honorable mode, and many 
of the poorer people bury their dead only because 
they cannot afford the expense of firewood to burn 
them. 

Only the very wealthy can be honored with a 
sandal-wood funeral pyre, and fewer still can have their 
ashes carried to the sacred Ganges. 

With a few important exceptions, such as goldsmiths 
and Sanyasis, the burying among Hindus is confined 
to the lower castes, and is done in the most careless 
and irreverent manner. 

No mark is made to indicate the grave, and no 
regularity is observed in the place of interment. A 
hole is dug — it may be for the hundredth time on the 
same spot — the body is cast in, slightly covered and 
left to the mercy of Pariah dogs and jackals. 

The Mohammedans, who also bury their dead, 
make some show of indicating the graves by means of 
rude stones, but of all the desolate, forlorn, and uncared- 
for places in the world, Mohammedan graveyards stand 
prominent. No fences to enclose them, no mounds 
over the graves, no walks, no flowers, no grass, no 



THE DRAD. v 215 

inscriptions, no white marble slabs, no painted boards, 
no — nothing except the bare, dark, rough headstones, 
lying, inclining and standing around in such neglect as 
to give the place the appearance of rejected waste land. 
This is the average Mussulman graveyard. Occasion- 
ally one is found containing a monument erected to 
some worthy follower of the prophet. In it are niches 
for burning lamps, and in the larger cities where there 
is a large and well-to-do Mohammedan population, 
their graveyards with the numerous burning lamps are 
a striking and interesting sight on a dark night. 
Cemeteries for 

EUROPEANS 
are kept up by government at all the principal stations 
throughout India. These are well cared for and remind 
the foreigner at once both of his past and of his future 
home. 

The Parsees' mode of disposing of the dead, by 
means of their 

TOWERS OF SILENCE, 

is at once unique and interesting. Owing to the fact 
that but few visitors are allowed to come near these 
towers, very conflicting accounts of their nature and 
use have found their way into print. Mr. Monier Will- 
iams, Sanskrit Professor at Oxford, was specially favored 
during his late visit to India in being admitted into the 
gardens surrounding the towers, and that while a funer- 
al was taking place. We can do no better than give a 
few extracts from his graphic account. 



2i6 EVERY-DA V LIFE IN INDIA. 

The Parsee population of India is confined princi- 
pally to Bombay, and it is near this city that these 
famous "Towers" are situated. Monier Williams 
says, 

*' Imagine a round column or massive cylinder 
twelve or fourteen feet high and sixty feet in diameter, 
built throughout of solid stone except in the centre, 
where a well eight or ten feet across leads down to an 
excavation under the masonry containing four drains, 
at right angles to each other, terminated by holes filled 
with charcoal or sand. Round the upper surface of 
this solid circular cyhnder, and completely hiding the 
interior from view, is a stone parapet ten or twelve feet 
in height. This it is which, when viewed from the out- 
side, appears to form one piece with the solid stone- 
work, and being, like it, covered with chunam, gives 
the whole the appearance of a low tower. The upper 
surface of the solid stone column is divided into sev- 
enty-two compartments, or open receptacles, radiating 
like spokes from the central well, and arranged in three 
concentric rings, separated from each other by narrow 
ridges of stone which are grooved to act as channels for 
conveying all moisture from the receptacles into the well 
and into the lower drains. 

" Each circle of open stone coffins is divided from 
the next by a pathway, so that there are three circular 
pathways, the last encircling the central well ; and these 
three pathways are crossed by another pathway from 
the solitary door which admits the corpse-bearers from 
the exterior. In the outermost circle are placed the 



THE DEAD, 219 

bodies of males, in the middle, those of females, and in 
the inner and smallest circle, nearest the well, those of 
children. 

" The parapet of each tower possesses an extraordi- 
nary coping which instantly attracts and fascinates the 
gaze. It is a coping formed, not of dead stone, but of 
living vultures. These birds, on the occasion of my 
visit, had settled themselves side by side in perfect order 
and in a complete circle around the parapets of the tow- 
ers, with their heads pointed inwards, and so lazily did 
they sit there, and so motionless was their whole mien, 
that, except for their color, they might have been carved 
out of the stonework. 

"While I was engaged with the secretary in exam- 
ining the model of the main tower, a sudden stir among 
the vultures made us raise our heads. At least a hun- 
dred birds collected around one of the towers began to 
show symptoms of excitement, while others swooped 
down from neighboring trees. The cause of this sud- 
den abandonment of their previous apathy soon re- 
vealed itself. A funeral was seen to be approaching. 
When the corpse -bearers reached the path leading by 
a steep incline to the door of the tower, the mourners, 
about eight in number, turned back and entered one of 
the prayer-houses. ' There,' said the secretary, ' they 
repeat certain prayers, and pray that the spirit of the 
deceased may be safely transported on the fourth day 
after death to its final resting-place.' The two bearers 
speedily unlocked the door, reverently conveyed the 
body into the interior, and unseen by any one laid it 



220 E VER Y-DA Y LIFE IN INDIA . 

uncovered in one of the open stone receptacles. In two" 
minutes they reappeared with the empty bier and white 
cloth, when a dozen vultures swooped down upon the 
body and were rapidly followed by flights of others. In 
five minutes more we saw the satiated birds fly back 
and lazily settle down upon the parapet. They had 
left nothing behind but a skeleton. 

" Meanwhile the bearers were seen to enter a build- 
ing shaped like a huge barrel. There, as I was in- 
formed, they changed their clothes and washed them- 
selves. Shortly afterwards we saw them come out and 
deposit their cast-ofl" funeral garments on a stone recep- 
tacle near at hand. Not a thread leaves the garden, 
lest it should carry defilement into the city. Perfectly 
new garments are supplied at each funeral. In a fort- 
night, or at most four weeks, the same bearers return, 
and with gloved hands and implements resembling 
tongs place the dry skeleton in the central well. There 
the bones find their last resting-place, and there the 
dust of whole generations of Parsees commingling is 
left undisturbed for centuries. 

" The revolting sight of the gorged vultures made 
me turn my back on the towers with ill-concealed ab- 
horrence, yet I could not help thinking that however 
much such a system may shock our European feelings 
and ideas, our own method of interment, if regarded 
from a Parsee point of view, may possibly be equally 
revolting to Parsee sensibilities. The exposure of the 
decaying body to the assaults of innumerable worms 
may have no terrors for us because our survivors do 



THE DEAD. 221 

not see the assailants ; but let it be borne in mind that 
neither are the Parsee survivors permitted to look at 
the heaven-sent birds. Why, then, should we be sur- 
prised if they prefer the more rapid to the more linger- 
ing operation? and which of the two systems, they 
may reasonably ask, is the more defensible on sanitary 
grounds ?" 



222 E VER Y-DA Y LIFE IN INDIA, 



XXIY. NATURAL PRODUCTIONS. 

India possesses every variety of climate and tem- 
perature — ranging from tropical heat to arctic cold — 
and is therefore in one part or another adapted to sus- 
tain any and all of the vegetable and animal produc- 
tions of the globe. Probably no more interesting field 
for the student of nature, whether as zoologist, botanist, 
or mineralogist, is presented anywhere in the world 
within so narrow a compass. 

Of well-known animals, there are found in various 
parts of India elephants — wild and domesticated, cam- 
els, the rhinoceros, wild-boar, tiger, lion, panther, leop- 
ard, hyena, jackal, bear, deer of various kinds, from the 
giraffe down to the diminutive " Ceylon deer," goats — 
among which is the Cashmere goat, which furnishes the 
wool for the far-famed India shawls, sheep — wool-pro- 
ducing and non-wool-producing kinds, the latter being 
raised extensively for slaughtering — wild cattle, among 
which is the famous Arnee, found near the base of the 
Himalayas, and said to be the largest kind of cattle 
known — as also domestic cattle, including the buffalo. 

The Indian cow has a large raised hump on the 
back over the fore-legs, and a wide dewlap which al- 
most reaches to the ground. These cows yield less 
milk than American cows, and always insist on having 
the calf suck for a few moments at each milking. Oth- 
erwise they positively refuse to give the milk. The 



NA TURAL PRODUCTIONS. 223 

same is true of the buffalo, which is also kept for milk- 
ing purposes. The milk of this animal is extremely- 
rich and yields a surprising quantity of butter. Buffa- 
loes being cheaper and more easily fed than cows, they 
are much more numerous. In appearance they are the 
most ungainly animal nature has ever produced^ — the 
rhinoceros excepted. 

The finest-looking and most favored among domes- 
tic animals is the Brahmani bull. Consecrated to the 
gods when young, allowed to roam wherever he pleases, 
and to appropriate whatever comes in his way, he feasts 
on the fat of the land and makes himself an unmitigated 
nuisance. 

Horses of a small and degenerated kind are native 
to India, but the better breeds are all imported. There 
is scarcely any demand for them as beasts of burden* 
Oxen take their place, and are in every way better 
adapted to the country and to the people. 

Donkeys abound everywhere, and seem to have but 
little to do except to graze along the roadside and stare 
at passers-by. They are generally owned either by 
washermen, who are said to use them for carrying bun- 
dles of clothing to and from the tanks, or by nomadic 
basket and mat makers, who use them for carrying bur- 
dens from village to village. 

The common dog of India, called by way of re- 
proach " Pariah dog," is a poor, mean, starved, despi- 
cable creature, which looks as if all the curses of the 
brute creation had centred on him. He is said to be 
destitute of all those noble traits of character which be- 
25 



224 E VERY-DA Y LIFE IN INDIA, 

long to his Western relative — but no wonder, when we 
consider how his training has been neglected for many- 
generations. 

Monkeys are plentiful, and are held in religious es- 
teem for the services which they are said to have ren- 
dered Rama, the hero-god. 

The mongoose is a small squirrel-like animal, which 
is noted for its ability to attack the deadly cobra. How 
it escapes the venomous bite or its effect, which to all 
other animals is fatal, is not known. It is thought by- 
some to feed at once when bitten upon an herb which 
counteracts the poison. This animal is easily domesti- 
cated, and serves a good purpose in guarding sleeping 
children against snakes and vermin. Squirrels, chip- 
mucks, rats, mice, bats, hares, and rabbits, abound ev- 
erywhere. 

Among reptiles the crocodile is the largest, and the 
cobra de capello the most deadly. No antidote for the 
poisonous bite of this snake has yet been discovered. 
It is found everywhere, exceedingly dreaded by all, and 
is a common object of worship. Rice, flowers, cocoa- 
nuts, and other articles, are offered to it at its haunts, 
and idols in imitation of it are plentiful. The object of 
this worship is to appease, propitiate, as is in fact the 
object of Hindu worship generally. 

Scorpions of various species and sizes abound. 
Their sting is exceedingly painful, and one soon learns 
to be cautious when fumbling about in the dark. Scor- 
pions are timid, and run away if they have a chance to 
do so, but if touched, or in any way put on the defen- 



NATURAL PRODUCTIONS, 225 

sive, It does not take them long to make up their minds 
what to do. 

BIRDS. 

The birds of India, though perhaps less splendid in 
plumage and not as musical as we should expect to find 
the feathery tribe in a tropical country, are nevertheless 
worthy of more notice than our limits allow us to give 
them. Some of them resemble our American birds 
both in plumage and song. 

Among the most common are the various kinds of 
crows, parrots, kites, sparrows, swallows, thrushes, 
quails, snipe, and doves. The oriole and the wood- 
pecker are found here; and the mina, an interesting 
little bird, in manner and shape reminds us of the robin. 

In some parts of India there are birds which attract 
attention on account of their peculiar forms, as the 
horned pheasant of Nepaul, the horned turkey of Ben- 
gal, the lammergeyer, or bearded vulture, of the Hima- 
layas, and the Malabar shrike, with its tufted plume. 

Others are noted for their peculiar disposition, as the 
jocose shrike, with its lively and amusing manner, and 
the paradise grakle, which, when kept near the farm- 
yard, acquires the various cries of ducks, geese, sheep, 
pigs, etc. 

FISH. 

The streams of India are well supplied with fish of 
all varieties and sizes, and these form an important arti- 
cle of food for the meat-eating classes. Not only ordi- 
nary streams, but rice-fields when inundated, temporary 



226 E VER Y-DA Y LIFE IN INDIA. 

ponds in low places, and even ditches along the road- 
side, swarm with diminutive fish, which are eagerly 
caught and consumed by the lower classes. 

Oysters, lobsters, and mussels, are found along the 
coast, but they are of inferior quality, and not valued as 
an article of food by the natives. 

The insect world is exceedingly well represented in 
India, and the entomologist in search of a paradise — 
scientifically considered only — ought to wend his way 
hither. 

The vegetable kingdom furnishes the same interest 
and variety as the animal kingdom ; and the minerals 
of India, as represented by gold, silver, and precious 
stones, have an historic and world-wide fame. A simple 
enumeration of species and varieties would be uninter- 
esting, and any extensive discussion of these subjects 
does not fall within the scope of this book. The large 
and stately trees, however, are objects of such special 
interest that we cannot pass them by unnoticed. 



TREES, 227 



XXY. TREES. 

To a lover of nature, the fine, stately trees of India 
are objects of great interest. In the hottest season of 
the year, when the earth lies parched and brown, many 
of these put on their robes of freshest green, and thus 
endear themselves to us the more. 

Of the endless species and varieties of trees which 
adorn the landscape with their beauty, refresh the plains 
with their shade, and benefit the teeming milHons with 
their products, we can mention only a few. 

If asked which of the magnificent Indian trees we 
love most, we should at first be embarrassed for an an- 
swer ; but our choice, if choose we must, would proba- 
bly fall upon 

THE NEEM OR MARGOSA TREE. 

This is the Azadiracta Indica of the botanies, and the 
name is said to be derived from the Persian A 2 ad Du- 
rukht, " the excellent tree." It is closely related to the 
Melia Azaderach^ or Persian lilac of North America, 
which is also found in some parts of India. 

The flowers of this tree are not showy, but its foli- 
age, which is deepest in the hot season, is exceedingly 
beautiful, and forms a grateful shade for man, bird, and 
beast. When full grown, the tree is very large, and 
generally symmetrical as a picture. It is common all 
over India, and is as useful as ornamental. The timber 



228 E VER Y-DA Y LIFE IN INDIA, 

is hard and durable, fit even for ship-building. The 
bark has a remarkably bitter taste, and is used as a 
medicine in intermittent fevers and rheumatism. Out of 
the leaves are made poultices, which are administered 
with good effect in various diseases of the eyes, ears, 
teeth, etc. The pericarp of the seeds yields, either by 
boiling or expression, a useful lamp oil, while from the 
kernel is made a hair-wash. 

THE BANYAN. 

The fame of this tree has spread all over the world. 
There are many species of it in India, but the most 
remarkable two are the Ficus Indica^ or regular Ban- 
yan, and the Ficus religiosa^ or Sacred Fig-tree. 

Whoever has read of India has read of some of the 
huge banyans found in various parts of the country. 
Every schoolboy knows about the famous one at the 
village of Mhow in Western India, with its sixty-eight 
stems descending from the branches, and its capacity to 
shade from a vertical sun twenty thousand men ! 

While of such giants there are probably not many 
in India, banyans of more moderate size, yet very large 
as compared with other trees, abound everywhere. 
From time immemorial they have been planted along 
the public roads, where they form a pleasant shade for 
travellers. Along old public highways we have driven 
for miles under banyan-arched roofs, and have grate- 
fully blessed, not only the noble old trees, but also the 
hands — now long forgotten — which placed them there. 

The timber of the banyan is white, light, porous, 



TREES. 231 

and almost useless. The leaves are stitched together 
as " leaf-plates," from which high-caste people eat their 
food. Passing along the road where banyans abound, 
weak old men and women and small children are seen 
gathering up the fallen leaves. These they take to their 
homes or sell them in the bazaar. They get but a trifle 
for them ; but as the work is specially light and simple, 
such members of the family as can do nothing else en- 
gage in it. 

The " Sacred Fig-tree " is also very common, but 
does not yield so dense a shade. The branches do not 
root, as is the case with the common banyan, but they 
are frequently of enormous length, so that they break 
off by their own weight. This tree is much respected 
.by the natives, who are unwilling to cut it down at any 
time. The leaves tremble somewhat like aspen leaves, 
which motion, the Hindus say, arises from the presence 
of the god Vishnu, who was born among its branches, 
and to whom the tree is therefore held sacred. 

Another remarkable tree, closely related to these, 
and very useful in many ways, as well as stately and 
beautiful, is 

THE INDIAN JACK-TREE. 

The botanical name of this tree is Artocarpus inte- 
grifolia, and it is the nearest known relative of the fa- 
mous bread-fruit tree of the South Sea Islands. (Ar/os, 
bread, and carpos, fruit.) The fruit of this tree grows 
to an enormous size, weighing from twenty to fifty 
pounds, and measuring as much as twenty inches in 
length and ten inches in diameter. Its size is no more 



232 EVERY'DA V LIFE IN INDIA. 

remarkable than its situation on the tree. It hangs to 
peduncles which spring directly from the trunk and the 
thick branches, or in the case of old trees, from the 
roots ! The outside of the fruit is covered with a coarse, 
green, prickly skin. Inside of this are numerous small 
pulpy fruits packed in a viscid fibre around the central 
axis, each of which contains a small nut. Natives are 
fond of this fruit, but Europeans are generally repelled 
from it by its strong smell. The timber of this tree is 
very valuable. It is yellow when cut, but turns to vari- 
ous shades of brown with age. When well polished, it 
is said to be superior in color to mahogany. 

At the very head of the useful timber trees stands 
the teak, strong and durable ; but as this flourishes best 
in the mountains and is not as graceful in appearance 
as many other trees, we have not mentioned it before. 
The mango -tree is also large, and prized scarcely less 
for its shade than for its delicious fruit. 

Ornamental shrubs and flowering trees of various 
kinds are numerous; especially the abundance and 
gaudiness of the latter will surprise and delight the 
European new-comer. 

Some one has said that every picture of India must 
have a palm-tree in it, and our reference to trees would 
indeed be very incomplete without 

THE PALM. 

There are a number of species of palm in India, but 
the most important are those popularly known as the 
Betelnut, the Cocoanut, and the Palmyra Palms. 



TREES, 233 

The first yields the arecanut, improperly called 
**betelnut" by the natives, because it is chewed with 
the betel-leaf. This is the most graceful and elegant of 
the palms, but it is not so common in all parts as some 
of the others. 

The cocoanut palm thrives best near the sea. It is 
not so straight and tall as the others. Its feathery leaves 
resemble gigantic plumes swaying gracefully in the 
breeze, and form a covering, as it were, to hide the pre- 
cious fruit, which lies close to the trunk, just under this 
crown of leaves. 

The most important of all the palms, and one which 
has been called the " prince of trees," on account of its 
great usefulness, is the Palmyra palm {Borassus /label- 
liformis). This tree is common in dry, sandy soil all 
over India, but is found most numerously on the Mala- 
bar coast and from Madras southward. Southern Tra- 
vancore alone has nearly three millions of these trees, 
while in Tinnevelly they are equally numerous. 

When young, that is, until fifteen or twenty years 
old — which period ought perhaps to be called its in- 
fancy — this tree has no grace or beauty. It is covered 
from the root upwards with the remains of old leaves 
which have been cut off" some distance from the trunk, 
leaving ugly and dangerous projections. These leaf- 
stalks when green are soft and easily cut, but after they 
become dry they are almost as hard as horn, and a per- 
son running againt such a tree by night or accidentally 
is sure to retire wounded. After the tree becomes older 

all these remains of former leaves disappear, and the 
26 



234 EVERY-DA Y LIFE IN INDIA. 

straight trunk emerges, smooth and clean, as if it had 
been artificially trimmed and polished. It rises to the 
height of from sixty to ninety feet, and is considered in 
its youth during its first hundred years. In fact, the 
timber is almost worthless till the tree is sixty years old. 

I have never been able to detect that beauty, either 
in single trees or in groves of palmyras, of which some 
writers speak. This tree can, however, well afford to do 
without either admiration for its beauty or praise for 
shade-giving qualities. In usefulness it challenges the 
trees of the world. A Hindu poem is said to enu- 
merate eight hundred and one uses to which the va- 
rious parts of the palmyra are applied. Any one who 
observes the many and ingenious ways in which a native 
makes this tree serve him, cannot fail to be impressed 
with both the tree and the man. 

The fruit, which is of a dark color, globular, and four 
or five inches in diameter, contains, besides pulp, two 
or three good-sized seeds. This pulp having been 
eaten, the seeds, which are hard nuts, are planted near 
the house until they begin to sprout. They are then 
split open with a knife, and the tender kernel is secured. 
This kernel has a very agreeable taste, and serves to 
slake the thirst when good water is not obtainable. It 
is considered somewhat of a dainty, and I have often 
had it brought to me by native friends when travelling 
in the villages. The young sprout is likewise turned to 
use, being boiled, roasted or dried, and ground into 
meal. But the fruit of the tree is of very small impor- 
tance compared with some of its other products. 



TREES. 235 

The leaves are of use to the people in innumerable 
ways. Each tree furnishes about a dozen new ones 
every year. These leaves are very large, the stem 
being from three to four feet long, and the fanlike ex- 
pansion about three feet in diameter. They are used 
for fuel, for thatch, for mats, for baskets, for cords, for 
fans, for umbrellas, for tobacco pouches, for books, etc. 
The most profitable product is the sap or " palm- wine." 
This is drawn twice daily during a period of about 
seven months in the year. It exudes from the unex- 
panded flowering stalk which is near the crown of the 
tree. It has therefore to be climbed twice a day, and 
the skill with which the regular " climbers " do this is a 
marvel in our eyes. 

This " palm-wine," if drunk fresh, is a very pleasant 
drink and harmless, but if fermented or distilled into 
spirits it becomes intoxicating. Much of the sap is 
boiled into sugar. This coarse sugar, or jaggery as it 
is called here, is used in many ways : as a cheap article 
of food, in medicine, in first-class mortar (to which it 
gives strength and tenacity), and it is said to have been 
exported to England to be used as an excellent manure. 

When the tree is cut down for its timber, the cen- 
tral leaf-bud at the crown is taken out and pickled. 
This is said to be very tender and delicious. 

There is a common proverb, referring to the palmy- 
ra, which says, " If you plant it, it will grow a thousand 
years ; and if you cut it, it will last a thousand years." 
The second part of the proverb has, no doubt, more 
truth in it than the first. The wood of the tree, that is, 



236 E VER Y-DA V LIFE IN INDIA . 

the outer circle, is very hard. It being an endogen, the 
centre is filled with soft, spongy, useless pith ; but around 
this there is a cylinder of wood, easily spHt and polished, 
which, if carefully preserved, hardens with age, and may 
last even a thousand years. It is used for building pur- 
poses, farming implements, bed-frames, bows, etc. 

"A native," says a writer, "may build an entire 
house, wanting no nails or ironwork, with posts, plates, 
roof, and covering, of the palmyra-tree. From this tree 
he may store his grain, make his bed, furnish his pro- 
visions, kindle his fire, draw or bring his water; and 
also, by the help of only an earthen pot set on three 
stones, cook his food, sweeten it if he chooses, procure 
his wine, and live day after day dependent only on this 
tree." 



FARMERS, 237 



XXYI. FARMERS. 

The most respectable class of people in India are 
the farmers. We use the word " respectable " in the 
sense of being worthy of respect, and not according to 
its common usage in India, where it means being born 
of high caste in a wealthy family, or in one especially 
devoted to learning and religion. They are also the 
most important class of people, notwithstanding the 
claims of the Brahmans. India could spare the Brah- 
mans and all they produce without any serious loss, but 
to take from India the farmers and their services would 
reduce the country to beggary. Without the farmers — 
the great body of whom are Sudras by caste — the Brah- 
mans would starve in their pride, and the Pariahs in 
their indolence would degenerate into hopeless savages. 
By way of giving honor to whom honor is due, we ought 
to say in this connection that in some parts of India 
Brahmans are taking to farming, not only as proprie- 
tors, but also as laborers in the fields. To such be all 
honor and praise. 

We do not say that the average farmer is either in- 
telligent or enterprising, but he is industrious, contented, 
law-abiding, and peaceful. He not only furnishes food 
for himself and the rest of his countrymen, but he pays 
to a great extent his country's taxes. His toil and econ- 
omy make it possible for so poor a country to support 



238 E VER Y-DA V LIFE IN INDIA . 

so expensive a government as Great Britain has im- 
posed upon India. 

In matters of Religion the Indian peasant is yet in 
bondage to the Brahman, and so well does the latter 
know the value of his hold upon his disciple, that he 
guards it most carefully and opposes most vehemently 
any encroachment upon his ground. 

The Indian ryot shows an appreciative and some- 
times an intense interest in the preaching of the Chris- 
tian missionary, but as soon as the preacher is out of 
sight the old faith is speedily restored and refortified by 
the Brahman priest, upon whom the unsuspecting peas- 
ant has been taught to look as the source of all wisdom. 

In his Home-life the ryot is exceedingly simple, 
and we can do our readers no better service than by 
giving them a picture of a farmer's home as drawn by 
a native* himself 

(The Reddis are a subdivision of the Sudras, and 
they may be regarded as the representative farmers of 
India.) 

" There is not much, we fear, to be seen by way of 
a home. A hut, some twelve feet square, of mud walls, 
surmounted by a pyramid-shaped roof of thatch or pal- 
myra leaves on a framework of bamboo, palmyra, or 
other inferior country timber, with a doorway four feet 
high by two broad, flanked on either side by pials of 
clay baked hard in the sun, about eighteen inches from 
the ground, the whole exterior mudwork of the struc- 

* " Pen and Ink Pictures of Native Indian Life, by a Hin- 
du." Madras Times, 1S79. 



FARMERS, 239 

ture being painted in alternate perpendicular streaks of 
chunam and red earth, a foot's width to each streak, 
and a couple of triangular niches (to place lamps in) in 
the front wall ; on either side of the doorway a roughly- 
carved representation of the trident mark that distin- 
guishes the followers of Vishnu; with the conch and 
discus, also emblematical of that deity, traced on the 
lintel — such is about as complete a description as can 
be given of the chief external features of the Reddi's 
abode. Stooping low under the narrow doorway, we 
enter the house, which consists only of a single apart- 
ment, redolent of cowdung and confined air, of smoke 
too, and stale currystuff. To your left, as you enter, 
near the door, are three or four primitive fireplaces, 
built sufficiently high (or low) to allow of cooking in a 
sedentary posture. At the angles of the wall, and in 
close proximity to the fireplace, are tiers of pots, the 
lowermost ones being of a size big enough to be used 
as a bathing-tub, and tapering upwards to the tiny little 
chatti, almost the size of a thimble. These vessels of 
country pottery contain the household stores, such as 
rice and other grain, salt, or tamarind. Then there are 
a few slings of coarse rope netting suspended from the 
smoke-darkened rafters, in which are placed vessels 
holding ghee (clarified hVi\X.^x), jaggari (rough sugar), 
and other similar articles liable to be attacked by ants 
and rats. Conspicuously arranged are the cooking 
utensils, also of the coarse earthenware of local manu- 
facture, kept as clean, however, as is compatible with 
the material they are made of A few pieces of rough 



240 E VER Y-DA Y LIFE IN INDIA, 

matting, a strong box or two, a stout wooden pestle, 
heavily shod with iron at both ends, and a stone mortar 
and handmill (both in two parts each), in company with 
a rough granite slab for grinding currystuff on, he 
against the bare walls of the house, which are further 
embeUished (?) by pieces of rope strung across to do 
duty for the clothes-horse. There are also a couple of 
large wicker-work cylinders which are receptacles of 
grain, and a rude bedstead, perhaps of coir rope net- 
work on a frame and legs of jungle-wood. Add to 
these a couple of spinning-wheels, and our inventory 
of the Reddi's house {mimis live stock) is complete. 

"As is the case with all those who have to work, 
and work pretty hard with their hands for their daily 
bread, the Reddi is a very early riser. After partaking 
of a good quantity of cold (or, rather, decomposing) 
rice gruel, well mixed with soured buttermilk, and with 
a few green chillies {capsicuin Indicus) for a * relish,' 
the Reddi will set out, plough on shoulder and staff in 
hand, to the fields at a distance, returning home late in 
the evening. The women and children, or at least such 
of them as are either not old enough or strong enough 
for out-door labor, will stay at home, attending to cook- 
ing, fetching water, sweeping, and other similar house- 
hold occupations, or will work at the spindle, turning 
out no small quantity of yarn, which is either sold, or 
given to the village weaver to be turned into clothes for 
the use of the family. Some of the women, too, go to 
the nearest market-town, weekly or oftener, to dispose 
of what home-produce they may have in the shape of 



FARMERS, 241 

vegetables, milk, curds, or ghee^ returning home laden 
with such articles of household consumption as are not 
procurable in their own village. The most serious part 
of the day's business in a family such as that we are 
describing, is the cooking of the mid-day meal. A good 
portion of the food then prepared is at once taken to those 
members of the family working out of doors, carried in 
a basket on the head, or just as often in pots slung to a 
pole that is carried on the shoulders. After eating, fol- 
lows the traditional siesta^ in which even out-door labor- 
ers indulge ; and, after awaking therefrom, there will be 
the usual routine of domestic duties gone through, ter- 
minating with the preparation of supper. In the midst 
of her culinary operations, the Reddi's wife will rise to 
perform what is perhaps the only act approaching to 
worship in a homestead such as hers : namely, the light- 
ing of the lamps. Washing her hands, face, and feet, 
and smoothing her hair, she will light a wick, put it in 
a little saucer of oil, and prostrate herself before it with 
arms outstretched, and the hands joined together in the 
well-known Hindu attitude of worship, calling the while 
on the names of the family or village deity, or just as 
often on the goddess Lakshmi, the source of all tempo- 
ral welfare. Anon the evening meal is ready, and those 
at home anxiously await the return of those who are 
still outside. When the latter approach the house, they 
are presented with a vessel of water to wash their feet, 
washing away thereby, as it were, all evil that they may 
have brought with them from without, before entering 
the house. 

27 



242 E VERY-DA Y LIFE IN INDIA, 

" After supper, betel and nut will be chewed and to- 
bacco smoked, and one by one the several members of 
the Reddi family will go to sleep, thus bringing to an 
end one of the usual uneventful days of their ordinary 

existence." 

THE POVERTY 

of the Indian farmer has of late attracted a great deal of 
attention both in India and in England. Several emi- 
nent English travellers and philanthropists have taken 
up the subject and have given the public no end of in- 
formation as to his desolate condition. What a bless- 
ing, for once, that he cannot read ! 

That the Indian peasant pays an enormous tax for 
the privilege of being governed by her majesty the 
queen of England and empress of India, is true. That 
he would have to pay more if he were left to the greed 
of native princes is also true. That famine occasionally 
overtakes him is a fact, but whether he will gain or lose 
by such a visitation depends altogether upon whether 
he be a "large" or a "small" farmer. That money- 
lenders harass him and extort from him a good propor- 
tion of his hard-earned savings is indisputable, but the 
fault is very largely his own, and one which no external 
remedy can cure. That on the whole he has a fair 
share of human ills we are willing to admit, but that as 
a class the Indian farmers suffer more from poverty 
than tillers of the soil in others countries, we very much 
doubt. Of this we are quite sure, that the European 
traveller cannot form a correct judgment of the matter 
from merely passing through the country. 



FARMERS. 243 

In the first place, it must be remembered that all 
natives plead poverty in the presence of Europeans. 
To this we have never seen an exception. 

The ryot not only pleads poverty verbally, but he 
acts poverty. To be considered rich by those who levy 
his taxes he would consider a lamentable misfortune. 
Though he may have his gold-embroidered holiday 
clothes laid up in a box, and a thousand rupees buried 
in the earthen floor of his house, he will appear before 
the government officials with tatters about his loins and 
tears in his eyes, because he has not been able to make 
up the deficiency in his taxes / 

The European resident soon learns all his ways, but 
the new-comer cannot fail to be melted to pity at the 
sight of the poor fellow who, without a cloth to cover 
his nakedness, is thus hunted down for taxes by a heart- 
less government ! 

He lives in a small, inexpensive house, it is true, 
but if you were to build him a palace, he would be- 
grudge the ground it occupied, and still prefer his win- 
dowless hut. 

The fact that the ryot who owns his thousands, and 
adds yearly to his already useless gains, lives in the 
same kind of house, and dresses in the same style of 
clothing as his poorer neighbor, shows conclusively 
that the difference which the traveller observes be- 
tween the European and the Indian peasant in these 
respects cannot be ascribed to poverty. 



244 E VER Y'DA V LIFE IN INDIA, 



XXYII. FARMING. 

India is preeminently an agricultural country, and 
yet intelligent, enterprising farming is almost unknown. 
The common farming implements are of the most prim- 
itive, inconvenient, and inefficient kind. The plough — 
called so by a considerable stretch of imagination — is 
simply an iron-plated, tapering stick, held at a proper 
angle by being fastened into a crooked beam to which 
the bullocks are attached and by which the farmer 
guides it as it scratches along the surface of the ground. 
It throws up no furrow and seldom penetrates beyond 
five or six inches. 

The harrow is generally a bunch of brushwood, 
while the drill, from its intricate construction, defies 
description. Some laborious genius did once set about 
describing this wonderful instrument, and at the risk of 
being prosecuted for violating copyright laws, I give 
that description verbatim, not so much by way of infor- 
mation, as in confirmation of what I have already said, 
that it defies description : " The common drill machine 
has three pieces of sticks that make scratches about an 
inch and a half in depth, and the seeds drop into the 
scratches through three hollow bits of bamboo, that are 
immediately behind the scratching sticks. These bam- 
boos are united to one rude vessel at the top, containing 
the seeds. The larger seeds are sown by means of a 
bamboo fastened to the drill by a string, and having a 




PLOUGHING. 




BUFFALO COW— MILKING. 



FARMING, 247 

little cup upon the end. A woman attends to this 
bamboo, holding it directly over any one of the three 
scratches into which she wishes the seed to fall, with one 
hand, and dropping the seed into the cup with the 
other. The covering plough follows, which is a horizon- 
tal stick drawn along by two bullocks, and by being 
pressed against the ground, covers the seed with mould. 
The operation of sowing requires the attention of four 
persons and the labor of four bullocks." The few re- 
maining implements are of the same clumsy kind. 

Of late years the government has made some effort 
to introduce American ploughs and other improved 
agricultural implements, but its efforts have not been 
crowned with much success. The Hindu holds tena- 
ciously to that which is old and tried. If his fathers 
tilled the soil with these simple appliances, why should 
not he? What was good enough for his renowned 
ancestors ought surely to be good enough for him in 
this degenerate age, he reasons, not only with regard to 
religion and education, but also in regard to ploughs, 
drills, and reapers. 

Some years ago the government undertook to en- 
courage the introduction of American cotton in place of 
the inferior kinds now common in many parts of India. 
So conservative were the ryots, that although the seeds 
were furnished them gratis they in many cases refused 
to take them. Others, more afraid of displeasing the 
well-meaning officials, took the seeds and boiled them 
thoroughly before planting, in order that they might 
report " did not grow" in their reply to the government. 



248 E VER Y-DA Y LIFE IN INDIA, 

The manure which ought to go to the soil to restore its 
productiveness is burned as fuel, and if it were not for 
the peculiar climate of India, which during certain por- 
tions of the year is exceedingly favorable to the growth 
of all vegetation, farming would long ago have come to 
a standstill. In Europe or America the best soil, treated 
as in India, would in less than ten years, refuse the 
farmer a living. In the superficial ploughing and in 
the utter exhaustion of the soil may be found one of the 
causes of the oft-recurring famines in various parts of 
India. The growth of crops must depend more and 
more upon favorable moisture and a proper temperature, 
while the soil is helpless to furnish the least resource in 
case of unfavorable outward circumstances. 

The Chinese are infinitely ahead of the Hindus in 
their knowledge and practice of agriculture, and we 
could wish for a slight immigration of Celestials in this 
direction, to teach their Hindu neighbors how to make 
the best use of refuse matter in the restoration of the 
soil, and various other items of successful farming. 

Cultivation in India is of two kinds — wet and dry. 

WET CULTIVATION. 
Rice, that is the better species, known to botanists 
as oryza sativa, is an aquatic plant and requires wet 
cultivation. Saffron and sugar-cane, both of which are 
grown extensively in Southern India, also require wet 
cultivation, and so do several other crops, among which 
are some coarse cereals. The water for these is supplied 
from canals, tanks, wells, and flowing streams. Where 



FARMING. 249 

canals or natural streams cannot supply the demand for 
water, large tanks, often many miles in circumference, 
are constructed. As high a spot as practicable is 
selected, and strong banks of earth are thrown up to 
confine the water which collects during the periodical 
heavy rains. By means of gates, this vast body of 
water is then gradually drawn off and distributed over 
the adjoining fields as required. 

When the fields cannot be reached by water from 
tanks, wells are dug, from which the water is drawn by 
various appliances. One of the most common forms of 
drawing water is as follows : A large beam, sometimes 
the trunk of a tree, is balanced on an upright post or 
frame so near the well that one end of the beam is 
directly over it. To this end is attached a large bucket. 
One man then mounts the transverse beam and walks 
backward and forward on it. His weight raises and 
lowers each end of the beam in succession and thus at 
every round he brings to the surface an immense bucket 
of water. Another man at the mouth of the well guides 
the water into a channel prepared for carrying it into 
the field. By a change of hands this simple sweep is 
kept going day and night, supplying water for a con- 
siderable area. In the same way water is also lifted 
from rivers and smaller streams. In some cases bullocks 
are used for lifting water. The appliances in such cases 
are also of the simplest kind, consisting generally of a 
huge leather bucket which is drawn up by a rope and 
pulley — the bullocks having to return backwards while 
the bucket descends to be refilled. 



250 EVERY'DA Y LIFE IN INDIA. 

The process of wet cultivation varies for different 
crops. In the case of rice, the fields are ploughed under 
water, and the soil is converted into liquid mud — the 
fields having been partitioned into small portions not 
more than a few rods square, by little ridges rising 
scarcely above the surface. "^ While the fields are being 
prepared in this way, the rice seed is sprouting in 
nurseries. When about forty days old the seedlings 
are taken from the nursery and planted in these mud 
ponds. This affords employment for a great number of 
poor people to whom rice planting is a rice harvest. 
With cloths tucked up, a bundle of seedlings in one 
hand, while with the other they thrust two or three at a 
time into the mud — bending and stooping with the fierce 
sun on their backs and their feet in the mud — they toil 
from morning to night, resembling ants not only in their 
industry but also in appearance, when viewed from a 
distance. 

The rice plant grows very rapidly and requires to 
be kept well under water until the ears approach maturi- 
ty, when the water is drained and the crop is allowed 
to dry. 

During the growing season, a large expanse of rice- 
fields presents a most beautiful and interesting appear- 
ance. From five to seven months are required for the 
crop to ripen. Then begins another busy time — the 
reaping. This is done with an instrument resembling 
very much the old-fashioned sickle, well remembered 
and still sometimes used in America. After the ear has 
had time to dry out, the threshing begins. This is 



FARMING, 251 

sometimes done by manual labor, but generally the 
grain is trodden out by cattle. The rice in this state, 
that is, after threshing and with both husks on still, is 
called /aa'^. As it decays more readily if pounded or 
unhusked, it is stored away in this condition and even 
sold in the market as paddy. When required for use 
the outer hu§k is first ground or pounded off. In this 
operation it loses about half its quantity, and the husk 
which comes off is of no use, except as fuel when mixed 
with other combustibles. Before the rice is ready for 
cooking it must be pounded again, to remove the inner 
coating or bran. This may be used as food for poultry 
and cattle, and during times of scarcity it is mixed with 
water and eaten by the poor. There are almost num- 
berless varieties of rice — not less than one hundred and 
sixty having been enumerated in Ceylon alone. 

DRY CULTIVATION. 

Another species of rice, oryza Nepalensis, is exten- 
sively cultivated as a dry crop. In appearance it re- 
sembles the other rice, but it is considered inferior as an 
article of food. Although " rice" has become a syno- 
nym for food in India and has generally been spoken of 
as the staple upon which the millions of Hindus subsist, 
recent inquiries have shown that the poorer people 
depend mainly upon what are called coarse grains for 
their food supply. These are cheap and at the same 
time more nutritious than rice. 

About twenty per cent, of the cultivated land in 
Southern India is under wet cultivation, and the rest is 
28 



252 E VER Y-DA Y LIFE IN INDIA, 

used for dry crops. Among these, large and small 
millet, maize, wheat, and barley hold a prominent place. 
Cotton and indigo are extensively cultivated in many 
districts, and to the latter we devote elsewhere a separ- 
ate chapter. Opium culture is confined principally to 
Bengal. Various species of pulse, used as food for man 
and beast, tobacco, hemp, flax, betel, red pepper, cori- 
ander, and onions are cultivated in almost every sec- 
tion of India. Of the last-named three articles enormous 
quantities are consumed throughout the country in 
curry. The red pepper enters not only into the expen- 
sive and delicious curries of the rich, but a handful of 
chillies — as the pods are called — is also the last resort 
of the poor who can afford nothing else to make their 
meals savory. 

Cucumbers, pumpkins, melons, and various other 
vegetables are raised in large quantities by farmers, both 
for their own use and for the market. A small, bitter 
kind of cucumber is brought by wagon-loads to market 
and sold extremely cheap. During times of scarcity it 
is almost the only food of the very poor. 

One feature of farming in India which readily attracts 
the attention of a European, and which might possibly 
be worth our careful study, are the mixed crops; that 
is, the growing of different grains and vegetables on the 
same field at the same time. As an example, large 
millet, a tall pulse, a low trailing pulse, and cucumbers 
are often growing together. Before the tall pulse is 
developed sufficiently to require all the room, the 
millet ripens and is removed. Likewise the cucumbers 



FARMING, 253 

are gathered and the vines dry away by the time the 
trailing pulse is ready to occupy the whole surface. 
This leaves yet two crops on the field, neither of which 
interferes with the other. Rather, they are useful to 
each other. The tall stalk, with its spreading branches 
throws a cooling shade over the creeper at its feet, and 
the creeper in return, by densely covering the earth, 
retains the moisture so greatly needed by the roots of 
the larger stalk. Various other crops are mixed up in 
similar ways to the great advantage of the farmer. In 
favorable years, two and sometimes even three succes- 
sive distinct crops are reaped from the same field, thus 
affording the industrious peasant a chance to pay his 
taxes with ease and store up grain in anticipation of a 
famine year. 



254 E VER Y'DA V LIFE IN INDIA, 



XXYIII. IKDIGO. 

The manufacture of this valuable dye is one of the 
most important industries of India. Judging by the 
number of " indigo vats " wnich are found in all parts 
of the country from Nepaul to Ceylon, we should think 
the amount of indigo exported must be something enor- 
mous. Comparatively little of the yearly produce is 
used in this country, dark colors being almost univer- 
sally eschewed in native clothing. The indigo planta- 
tions of Bengal have a world-wide fame ; but in South- 
ern India the cultivation of the plant, while it is also 
very common, is generally confined to a proportionate 
place among the other yearly crops. Thus the ryot 
who cultivates fifty acres may see fit to devote ten of 
them to indigo. One factory answers therefore the 
purpose of a very large neighborhood. The individual 
ryot may either sell his leaves to the owner of the fac- 
tory, which is generally the case, or he may enter into 
an agreement with him for the 'use of the factory or for 
the expression of his leaves. 

Where the plant is cultivated in this limited manner, 
the modes of manufacturing the dye from the leaf are 
much more primitive than those found on the extensive 
plantations of the North. The cultivation of the plant 
and the manufacture of the dye on an indigo plantation 
are thus graphically described by an English planter :* 
* "Sport and Work on the Nepaul Frontier," by Maori. 



INDIGO, 255 

"The ground having been prepared and arrange- 
ments* having been made for a supply of seed, we are 
ready for sowing. Drills are got out, overhauled, and 
put in thorough repair. On a certain day when all 
seems favorable— no signs of rain or high winds— the 
drills are set at work, and day and night the work goes 
on till all the land under cultivation has been sown. 

"After some seven, nine, or perhaps fifteen days, 
according to the weather, begin to appear in long lines 
of delicate, pale, yellowish -green the young, soft shoots. 
This is a most anxious time. Should rain fall, the whole 
surface of the earth gets caked and hard, and the deli- 
cate plant burns out, or, being chafed against the hard 
surface-crust, it withers and dies. If the wind gets into 
the east, it brings a peculiar blight, which settles round 
the leaf and collar of the stem of the young plant, chokes 
it, and sweeps off miles and miles of it. If hot west 
winds blow, the plant gets black, discolored, burnt up, 
and dead. A south wind often brings caterpillars — at 
least this pest often makes its appearance when the wind 
is southerly ; but as often as not caterpillars find their 
way to the young plant in the most mysterious manner, 
no one knowing whence they come. In some places 
the seed may have been bad or covered with too much 
earth, and the plant comes up straggling and thin. If 
there is abundant moisture, this must be resown. In 
fact, there is never-ending anxiety and work at this sea- 
son ; but when the plant is an inch or two high, the 
most critical time is over, and one begins to think about 
the next operation, namely, weeding. 



256 E VER Y-DA Y LIFE IN INDIA, 

" The coolies are again in requisition. Each comes 
armed with a small metal spatula, broad-pointed, with 
. which they dig out the weeds with amazing deftness. 
Sometimes they may inadvertently take out a single 
stem of indigo with the weeds : the eye of the mate, z. e., 
the man in charge of the coolies, espies this at once, 
and the careless coolie is treated to a volley of Hindu 
Billingsgate, in which all his relations are abused to the 
seventh generation. By the time the first weeding is 
finished, the plant will be over a foot high, and if ne- 
cessary a second weeding is then given. After the 
second weeding, and if any rain has fallen in the inte- 
rim, the plant will be fully two feet high. 

*' It is now a noble-looking expanse of beautiful 
green, waving foliage. As the wind ruffles its myriads 
of leaves, the sparkle of the sunbeams on the undula- 
ting mass produces the most wonderful combinations of 
light and shade ; feathery sprays of a delicate pale green 
curl gracefully all over the field. It is like an ocean of 
vegetation, with billows of rich color chasing each other, 
and blending in harmonious hues ; the whole field look- 
ing a perfect oasis of beauty amid the surrounding dull 
brown tints of the season. 

" It is now time to give the plant a light touch of 
the plough. This eases the soil about the roots, lets in 
air and light, tends to clean the undergrowth of weeds, 
and gives it a great impetus. By the beginning of June 
the tiny red flower is peeping from its leafy sheath, the 
lower leaves are turning yellowish and crisp, and it is 
almost time to begin the grandest and most important 



INDIGO, 257 

operation of the season, the manufacture of the dye from 

the plant. 

THE FACTORY. 

" Indigo is manufactured solely from the leaf. When 
arrangements have been made for cutting and carting 
the plant from the fields, the vats and machinery are all 
made ready, and a day is appointed to begin manufac- 
ture. The apparatus consists of, first, a strong service- 
able pump for pumping up water into the vats ; this is 
now mostly done by machinery, but many small facto- 
ries still use the old Persian wheel, which may be 
shortly described as simply an endless chain of buckets, 
working on a revolving wheel or drum. The machine 
is worked by bullocks, and as the buckets ascend full 
from the well, they are emptied during their revolution 
into a small trough at the top, and the water is conveyed 
into a huge masonry reservoir or tank, situated high up 
above the vats, which forms a splendid open-air bath for 
the planter when he feels inclined for a swim. Some of 
these tanks are capable of containing forty thousand 
cubic feet of water or more. 

" Below, and in a line with this reservoir, are the 
steeping vats, each capable of containing about two 
thousand cubic feet of water when full. Of course the 
vats vary in size, but what is ealled a pucca vat is of 
the above capacity. When the fresh green plant is 
brought in, the carts with their loads are ranged in line 
opposite these loading vats. The loading coolies jump 
into the vats, and receiving the plant from the cartmen. 
Stack it up in perpendicular layers till the vat is full. A 



26o EVERY'DA Y LIFE IN INDIA. 

up the liquor into the air. The quantity forced up by 
the one cooHe encounters in mid-air that sent up by the 
man standing immediately opposite to him, and the two 
jets meeting and mixing confusedly together, tumble 
down in broken frothy masses into the vat. Beginning 
with a slow, steady stroke, the coolies gradually in- 
crease the pace, shouting out a hoarse, wild song at 
intervals ; till, what with the swish and splash of the 
falling water, the measured beat of the beating-rods, 
and the yells and cries with which they excite each 
other, the noise is almost deafening. The water, which 
at first is of a yellowish-green, is now beginning to as- 
sume an intense blue tint ; this is the result of the oxy- 
genation going on. As the blue deepens, the exertions 
of the coolie increase, till with every muscle straining, 
head thrown back, chest expanded, his long black hair 
dripping with white foam, and his bronzed, naked body 
glistening with blue liquor, he yells and shouts and 
twists and contorts his body till he looks like a true 
' blue devil.' To see eight or ten vats full of yelling, 
howling blue creatures, the water splashing high in 
mid-air, the foam flecking the walls, and the measured 
beat of the rods rising weird-like into the morning air, 
is almost enough to shake the nerve of a stranger, but 
it is music in the planter's ear, and he can scarce refrain 
from yelling out in sympathy with his coolies, and shar- 
ing in their frantic excitement. Indeed it is often ne- 
cessary to encourage them if a vat proves obstinate, and 
the color refuses to come — an event which occasionally 
does happen. It is very hard work beating, and when 



INDIGO. 261 

this constant violent exercise Is kept up for about three 
hours (which is the time generally taken), the cooHes 
are pretty well exhausted, and require a rest. 

" During the beating two processes are going on 
simultaneously. One is chemical — oxygenation — turn- 
ing the yellowish -green dye into a deep intense blue; 
the other is mechanical — a separation of the particles of 
dye from the water in which it is held in solution. The 
beating seems to do this, causing the dye to granulate 
in larger particles. 

" When the vat has been beaten, the coolies remove 
the froth and scum from the surface of the water, and 
then leave the contents to settle. The fecula or dye, 
or mall as it is technically called, now settles at the bot- 
tom of the vat in a soft pulpy sediment, and the waste 
liquor left on the top is let off through graduated holes 
in the front. Pin after pin is gradually removed, and 
the clear sherry- colored waste allowed to run out till 
the last hole in the series is reached, and nothing but 
dye remains in the vat. By this time the coolies have 
had a rest and food, and now they return to the works, 
and either lift up the Tnall in earthen jars and take it to 
the mall-tank, or, as is now more commonly done, they 
run it along a channel to the tank, and then wash out 
and clean the vat to be ready for the renewed beating 
on the morrow. When all the mall has been collected 
in the mall-tank, it Is next pumped up into the straining- 
room. It is here strained through successive layers of 
wire gauze and cloth, till, free from dirt, sand, and im- 
purity, it is run into the large iron boilers, to be subject- 



262 E VER Y-DA Y LIFE IN INDIA . 

ed to the next process. This is the boiHng. This oper- 
ation usually takes two or three hours, after which it is 
run off along narrow channels till it reaches the strain- 
ing-table. It is a very important part of the manufac- 
ture, and has to be carefully done. The straining-table 
is an oblong shallow wooden frame, in the shape of a 
trough, but all composed of open woodwork. It is 
covered by a large straining-sheet, on which the 7na// 
setdes, while the waste water trickles through and is 
carried away by a drain. When the mall has stood on 
the table all night, it is next morning lifted by scoops 
and buckets and put into the presses. These are square 
boxes of iron or wood, with perforated sides and bot- 
tom and a removable perforated lid. The insides of the 
boxes are Hned with press cloths, and when filled these 
cloths are carefully folded over the ma//, which is now 
of the consistence of starch ; and a heavy beam, worked 
on two upright three-inch screws, is let down on the lid 
of the press. A long lever is now put on the screws, 
and the nut worked slowly round. The pressure is 
enormous, and all the water remaining in the ma// is 
pressed through the cloth and perforations in the press- 
box till nothing but the pure indigo remains behind. 

'' The presses are now opened, and a square slab of 
dark moist indigo, about three or three and a half 
inches thick, is carried off on the bottom of the press 
(the top and sides having been removed), and carefully 
placed on the cutting-frame. This frame corresponds 
in size to the bottom of the press, and is grooved in 
lines somewhat after the manner of a chess-board. A 



INDIGO. 263 

stiff iron rod, with a brass wire attached, is put through 
the groove under the slab, the wire is brought over the 
slab, and the rod being pulled smartly through brings 
the wire with it, cutting the indigo in much the same 
way as you would cut a bar of soap. When all the 
slab has been cut into bars, the wire and rod are next 
put into the grooves at right angles to the bars and again 
pulled through, thus dividing the bars into cubical cakes. 
Each cake is then stamped with the factory mark and 
number, and all are noted down in the books. They 
are then taken to the drying-house ; this is a large airy 
building, with strong shelves of bamboo reaching to the 
roof, and having narrow passages between the tiers of 
shelves. On these shelves the cakes are ranged to dry. 
The drying takes two or three months, and the cakes 
are turned and moved at frequent intervals, till thor- 
oughly ready for packing. All the little pieces and cor- 
ners and chips are carefully put by on separate shelves, 
and packed separately. Even the sweepings and refuse 
from the sheets and floor are all carefully collected, 
mixed with water, boiled separately, and made into 
cakes, which are called 'washings.' 

"During the drying a thick mould forms on the 
cakes. This is carefully brushed off before packing, 
and, mixed with sweepings and tiny chips, is all ground 
up in a hand-mill, packed in separate chests, and sold 
as dust. In October, when manufacturing is over and 
the preparation of the land going on again, the pack- 
ing begins. The cakes, each of separate date, are care- 
iuUy scrutinized and placed in order of quality. The 



264 E VER Y-DA Y LIFE IN INDIA . 

finest qualities are packed first, in layers, in mango- 
wood boxes. The boxes are first weighed empty, re- 
weighed when full, and the difference gives the net 
weight of the indigo. The tare, gross, and net weights 
are printed legibly on the chests, along with the factory 
mark and number of the chest, and when all are ready 
they are sent down to the brokers in Calcutta for sale. 
Such briefly is the system of manufacture. 

" During manufacturing time the factory is a busy 
scene. Long before break of day the ryots and coolies 
are busy cutting the plant, leaving it in green little heaps 
for the cartmen to load. In the early morning the carts 
are seen converging to the factory on every road, crawl- 
ing along like huge green beetles. Here a procession 
of twenty or thirty carts, there clusters of twos or threes. 
When they reach the factory the loaders have several 
vats ready for the reception of the plant, while others 
are taking out the already steeped plant of yesterday, 
staggering under its weight, as, dripping with water, 
they toss it on the vast accumulating heap of refuse 
material. 

" Down in the vats below, the beating coolies are 
plashing and shouting and yelling, or the revolving 
wheel (where machinery is used) is scattering clouds of 
spray and foam in the blinding sunshine. The firemen, 
stripped to the waist, are feeding the furnaces with the 
dried stems of last year's crop, which forms our only 
fuel. The smoke hovers in volumes over the boiling- 
house. The pinmen are busy sorting their pins, roll- 
ing hemp round them to make them fit the holes m.ore 



INDIGO. 265 

exactly. Inside the boiling-house, dimly discernible 
through the clouds of stifling steam, the boilermen are 
seen with long rods, stirring slowly the boiling mass of 
bubbling blue. The clank of the levers resounds through 
the pressing-house, or the hoarse guttural ' Hah, hah !' 
as the huge lever is strained and pulled at by the press- 
house coolies. The straining-table is being cleaned by 
the table ' mate ' and his coolies, while the washerman 
stamps on his sheets and press-cloths to extract all the 
color from them, and the cake-house boys run to and 
fro between the cutting-table and the cake-house with 
batches of cakes on their heads, borne on boards. The 
plash of water, the clank of machinery, the creaking of 
wheels, the roaring of the furnaces, the shouts and yells 
of the excited coolies ; the vituperations of the drivers as 
some terrified or obstinate bullock plunges madly about; 
the objurgations of the 'mates' as some lazy fellow ceases 
his stroke in the beating- vats ; the cracking of whips as 
the bullocks tear round the circle where the Persian 
wheel creaks and rumbles in the damp, dilapidated 
wheel-house; the dripping buckets revolving clumsily 
on the drum; the arriving and departing carts; the 
clang of the anvil, as the blacksmith and his men ham- 
mer away at some huge screw which has been bent ; the 
hurrying crowds of cartmen and loaders with their bur- 
dens of fresh green plant or dripping refuse— form such 
a medley of sights and sounds as I have never seen 
equalled in any other industry." 



266 E VER Y-DA Y LIFE IN INDIA . 



XXIX. OTHER INDUSTRIES. 

Ranking with the farmers in general worth and 
usefulness, and equally entitled to our respect for their 
honest industry and peaceful conduct, are the various 
classes of artisans. 

Among these, as among the farmers, we are first of 
all surprised at the rude instruments with which they 
do their work. To us the contrast between the nature 
of the tools employed and the quality of the work pro- 
duced by them is marvellous, and we are quite sure 
that no European artisan would hope to produce such 
results with so few and such simple implements. 

The looms which manufacture the world-renowned 
cotton, silk and camels' hair goods of India would not 
be considered fit to weave the coarsest sackcloth in 
America, and the contents of a first-class goldsmith's 
tool-chest in India would be quite insufficient for a trav- 
elling tinker in Europe. 

WEAVERS. 

Owing to the introduction of European piece goods 
and the establishment of weaving mills in some parts of 
India, the poor native weavers with their hand-looms 
are being gradually starved out of their employment. 
This is true especially of those who depend for a liveli- 
hood upon the demand for plain goods. The ordinary 
*' cloths " are being replaced by piece goods from 




WEAVING A BLANKET. 




SPINNING COTTON. 



OTHER INDUSTRIES. 269 

Europe, and even bordered cloths after the native 
patterns for men and women are now manufactured in 
Manchester and sold in the Indian market. 

The best English and American calicoes are so 
much inferior both in texture and coloring to the native 
article that this kind of goods has so far found but little 
favor among natives. The native washerman, with his 
lime and rough stone process, sends our Western " fast 
colors" to the winds, and our "sizing" — well — size is 
about all that is left of European calico after the first 
washing, and the second finishes up even that. Coun- 
try-made calicoes, on the other hand, are much stron- 
ger and keep their beautiful colors as long as there is 
a shred of them left. 

The finer fabrics of India will yet for a long time be 
able to command sale on account of their superior qual- 
ity, and even when the imported articles shall rival them 
in this respect, there will still remain a local prejudice 
in favor of the old and country-made which will insure 
a market at home. It will be a long time before wealthy 
conservative Hindus of the old school consent to wrap 
their sacred bodies in cloths of foreign make. 

It is partly this stanch adherence to custom which 
keeps the weaving industry from utter collapse, and a 
fortunate thing it is. It is a pitiable sight to see the 
weavers thus gradually reduced to beggary without their 
being able to comprehend the cause. " Formerly," say 
they, *' we lived happily by our looms, having food for 
ourselves and families. Now we have no work and no 
rice. We have not learned to do cooly work, and 
30 



270 EVERY-DAY LIFE IN INDIA. 

even if we bury our shame and turn to this we cannot 
earn enough for our daily wants." 

CARPENTERS AND BLACKSMITHS 

have a brighter prospect before them. With the new 
and increasing demand for chairs, tables, cots and other 
articles of European furniture, added to the steady call 
for house-building, boat-building, wagon-making, etc., 
their occupation promises to become one of the most 
desirable. 

As a rule, a man combines carpentry, cabinet- 
making, blacksmithing and wagon-making in one trade, 
and considering the clumsy tools he has — not to say any- 
thing of the way in which he uses them — he turns out 
very fair work. The process is a slow one, and although 
a Hindu carpenter will work at eight annas (twenty-five 
cents) a day, by the time his job is completed his bill 
amounts to as much as an American carpenter's at two 
dollars a day. 

It is the general custom for artisans of all classes to 
sit on the ground while working. The carpenter, while 
sawing a board or cutting a stick with the right hand, 
holds it in its place with the toes of the foot and the 
left hand. His tools are few and primitive. The princi- 
pal one is a small adze, which answers also as a hammer 
and hatchet. A rude plane, a chisel and a wimble com- 
plete the ordinary stock. When our carpenter turns 
blacksmith he has, of course, to bring into requisition 
other tools, a pair of pincers, a hammer, a mallet, and 
a file. His forge he speedily sets up anywhere. The 



OTHER INDUSTRIES. 271 

bellows are small and easily carried about. Wherever 
required they are laid on the ground and directed 
towards the temporary hearth. A man or a boy sits 
by and works them whenever a blast is required. 

POTTERS. 

The pottery of India is not only very rude and 
coarse, but it is exceedingly fragile, and in keeping up 
the supply of the earthen vessels of all sizes, sorts and 
descriptions, which are so extensively used and so read- 
ily broken, the potters do a thriving business. They 
mould the earth on a wheel which they set in motion 
with the hand. Making tiles, with which all the better class 
of houses are covered, forms an important branch of the 
potters' work. They also burn brick; but throughout 
the' villages there is but little demand for these, as nearly 
all the houses are built of mud. After the clay has 
been moulded into the proper shape, whether water- 
pot, tile, or brick, it is dried in the sun for a while and 
then burned in a kiln of the simplest kind. 

Glazed pottery, so far as we know, is not made in 
India. 

GOLDSMITHS 

are a numerous class of artisans, who, notwithstanding 
the reputed poverty of India, seem to be steadily em- 
ployed. With very rude tools they turn out exquisite 
work in gold, silver, and brass. Hindu women are 
exceedingly fond of jewelry, and to supply the steady 
demand for ornaments of this kind furnishes the main 
occupation of the goldsmiths. But their work is not 



272 EVERY-DA V LIFE IN INDIA. 

confined to jewelry ; they make also brass and copper 
vessels for household use, and some of them, like Deme- 
trius of Ephesus, gain a livelihood by making idols. 

WASHERMEN. 

These are a class by themselves, and though not at 
the foot of the caste ladder, their occupation is consid- 
ered a mean one. For some unexplained reason they 
act also as palenkeen bearers, and in some parts of 
India, at least, no others can be found to do this 
service. 

Though a Mussulman or Sudra washerman would 
scorn to eat food with a Pariah servant, the latter would 
consider himself sorely humiliated if he were compelled 
to wash his master's clothing. It is not the custom for 
any except washermen to wash clothing. Even beg- 
gars turn.their clothing over to them for washing. A 
poor cooly family may be idle a whole month for lack 
of work, and yet it would never strike them as a proper 
thing for them to go to the tank and wash their cloth- 
ing, instead of giving it over to the washerman and 
paying him his fee. 

The washing is done in streams or tanks by beating 
on stones, steaming over and over and bleaching in 
the sun. The washerman, standing up to his knees in 
the water, with the stone rising just above the water's 
surface before him, plunges the garment to be operated 
upon under the water, gathers it up at one end and, 
holding it with both hands, swings it around his head 
and brings it down upon the stone with the whack and 




CARPENTERS AT WORK. 




GOLDSMITHS. 



OTHER INDUSTRIES, 275 

the grunt of a professional woodchopper. The ends 
are occasionally reversed, and the process is continued 
until the foreign elements are expelled. Lime-soap 
and even pure quick-lime are extensively employed as 
a facilitating agent, and the havoc which the whole 
process makes with color, fibre, and buttons, is sad to 
behold and pay for. 

There is no more useful servant in a European's 
whole establishment than the dhoby or washerman, and 
no other one is so fruitful a source of irritation. In a 
late book on India the washerman is put in a chapter 
with ants, fleas, bugs, mosquitoes, and scorpions, for no 
other reason that we can see except that the author 
must have regarded him as one of the pests of the 
country. 

Occasionally natives — especially those of the ser- 
vant fraternity — may be seen going about with a gen- 
tleman's shirt for a coat, or a linen table-cloth for a 
pu7icha. Lately we saw one proudly parading the 
streets on a holiday decorated with a huge antimacas- 
sar, which in former times graced the back of some 
lady's rocking chair. Most articles of this kind come 
into the possession of servants and their friends by 
being "lost in the wash," and as Europeans are con- 
stantly changing from station to station it is an easy 
matter for servants afterwards to pass them off as "a 
present from the gentleman who has gone." 

Unless the strictest watch is kept on the accounts, 
towels, sheets, napkins and the like disappear in the 
most mysterious manner. Many articles also are 



276 E VER Y-DA Y LIFE IN INDIA . 

"late," having meanwhile done good service to some 
form less fair. In the larger towns the washermen do a 
lucrative business in renting out ladies' and gentlemen's 
clothing to fashionable East Indians, and their loaning 
out native cloths everywhere is no secret, the only- 
remedy being for the owners to have them returned as 
speedily as possible. 

Notwithstanding his weakness for getting the ac- 
counts confused and his propensity for breaking but- 
tons, bleaching out colors and consuming the fibre 
of your best linen garments, the Indian washerman as 
he serves the European resident has also some good 
points. He does his work well. Ladies white dresses 
with frills innumerable, gentlemen's cuffs, collars and 
other linen he does up in a style worthy of a Parisian 
laundress. He does his work cheap. The amount of 
washing required by a European family in India is 
something extraordinary. From six to eight hundred 
pieces a month is no unusual number for a family in 
which there are several children. All these the faithful 
washerman " does " for a salary of from, seven to ten 
rupees a month. 

A native family allows the washerman from four to 
eight annas a month and an occasional present. 

The laws of Manu, which mix up things little and 
great in a remarkable manner, give this wholesome 
advice to washermen : 

" Let a washerman wash the clothes of his employ- 
ers by little and little, or piece by piece, and not hastily, 
on a smooth board : and let him never mix the clothes 



OTHER INDUSTRIES. 277 

of one person with the clothes of another, nor suffer 
any but the owner to wear them." 

Oilmen, fishermen, toddy -drawers, tanners, shoe- 
makers, basket-makers, mat-makers, confectioners and 
various other classes of people ranking as artisans 
might be named. 

Large numbers of men are employed by govern- 
ment as 

MAIL-CARRIERS. 

This service they perform with greater speed and 
regularily than it could be done with horses. The 
maximum weight for a man is about thirty pounds, and 
with this load he runs along at the rate of six miles an 
hour. The "banghy post," which corresponds to our 
" express " in America, is carried in the same way where 
there are no railroads, and is delivered almost as quickly 
as the mail. 

The Madras mail is carried all the way by post-run- 
ners and delivered in Guntoor, a distance of 250 miles, 
in less than three days. 

Thousands of men, women and children are employed 
by the Department of Public Works in making and 
repairing roads, digging canals and tanks, building 
railways, constructing government buildings, etc. 

Then there is the large class of government servants 
in offices and about offices — peons, writers, accountants, 
overseers, policemen, magistrates, tahsildars, munsiffs, 
etc., and a class, equally as large or larger, who are 



278 EVERY-DA Y LIFE IN INDIA. 

idly waiting and fondly hoping to find an entrance into 
the paradise of government service. This last class is 
a very large one and is yearly growing in numbers and 
discontent by the addition of the hordes of young Brah- 
mans who issue from the English schools of the country 
with only two things before them — a respectable situa- 
tion, w^hich means some kind of employment other than 
manual labor, or respectable loafing, which means living 
on other people's industry. 

With this brief review of the chief industries of India 
before them our readers will see that however romantic 
that country may look from a continent thousands of 
miles away, when we approach it and form an acquain- 
tance with the toiling millions who are the very life of 
the country, we find them engaged very much in the 
same pursuits as people in other lands; and though 
their outward customs and circumstances may be some- 
what different from our own, their inner longings, strug- 
gles, hopes and fears are much the same as those of 
the sturdy toilers in other parts of the world. 



ANGLO-INDIANS, 279 



XXX. AHGIxO-IRDIAHS. 

Many years ago, when the Angles, Saxons, and oth- 
ers, migrated into Britain, the Angles for some reason 
succeeded in having the country named after them- 
selves — Angle-land — England. In like manner this 
word. Angle, has taken the precedence in India, and 
European residents generally, whether borri in England, 
Scotland, Ireland, France, Germany, America, or in 
India itself, are spoken of as Anglo-Indians. 

This word must not be confounded with East In- 
dian or Eurasian, which means a person of mixed pa- 
rentage — European and Asiatic. The great majority 
of Anglo-Indian residents are persons connected with 
the government of the country. The rest are mainly 
missionaries and commercial agents. 

THE ORDINARY INDIAN STATION 

contains a collector or sub-collector, a judge, a civil 
surgeon, a police superintendent, an executive engineer, 
a pension paymaster, and one or two missionaries. If 
it be a trade centre, one or two European commercial 
agents probably belong to the foreign community. Mil- 
itary stations and the larger cities have numerous Eu- 
ropean residents of various titles, professions, ranks, and 
grades, who, according to written and unwritten social 
laws, are assigned to their respective strata in society. 
In a community of a dozen European ladies and 
31 



2t8o E VER V-DA V LIFE IN INDIA . 

gentlemen, separated from the rest of the world and 
surrounded by a people with whom they have not the 
least social affinity, one would expect to find the warm- 
est cordiality and the closest friendship. We should 
suppose that the brotherhood of a common fatherland, 
language, and social training, a common religion, and a 
common exile, would at once draw the members of such 
a community into the closest friendship, and make selfish 
isolation and cliquism a thing unknown. To find the 
very reverse of this in many Indian stations is one of 
the surprises and sorrows of the new-comer, especially 
if he be an American, unused to the icy regulations of 
English society. 

Deep and lasting friendships are almost unknown in 
Anglo-Indian society. The chief reason for this is 
probably the ever-changing nature of the community. 
The government officials are being constantly removed 
from one station to another, scarcely ever remaining in 
one place longer than one or two years, and frequently 
only a few months. When one leaves a station he is 
succeeded by another of equal rank, who takes up not 
only his office-work, but also his place in the social life 
of the station, and the departing one has scarcely found 
his new home before he is forgotten in the old. 

One soon makes up his mind to this kind of social 
life, and scarcely expects to form any lasting friend- 
ships. It is a sad feature of life in India, but it is not 
the one which causes the heartburnings and "mis- 
understandings" so common in Indian stations. Can 
you guess, dear American reader, what is the fruitful 



ANGLO-INDIANS, 281 

source of contention among these European children in 

the woods ? It is — let me whisper it — who is to go in 

to dinner first, second, third, fourth, and so on ! Alas 

for the poor host who, unwittingly or maliciously, puts 

fourth before third or second before first. Here it is 

called 

PRECEDENCE, 

and is considered a matter of sufficient importance for 
the heads of government to revise and print from time 
to time the "Warrant of Precedence." This prece- 
dence business may have other and higher uses in a 
political sense, but as it affects the smaller Indian sta- 
tions, it resolves itself into the order of marching into 
the dining-hall or ballroom. 

The social distinctions in India are sharp and se- 
verely drawn, and much more rigidly observed, it is 
said, than even in England. Each man depends upon 
his position in the public service, and each woman de- 
pends upon the rank of her husband; and however 
incredible, it is a fact that it is the wives, and not the 
husbands, who get into all sorts of unseemly social skir- 
mishes over their proper " places." Those who do not 
belong to the government service have no rank what- 
ever, and they bring up the rear. Wealth, culture, 
beauty, go for naught unless you can write "C. S." 
(Civil Service) to your name, or are so divinely favored 
as to be a captain in the army. Precedence is not con- 
fined to marching in to dinner, but it permeates the 
whole social fabric, and fortunate is the griffi^i who in 
his unsophisticated simplicity does not become hope- 



282 E VER Y-DA Y LIFE IN INDIA. 

lessly entangled in the multitudinous folds of Indian 
social red-tapism. Never to be forgotten was my ex- 
perience in this matter. It was on this wise : Soon after 
our coming to India a new cabinet organ for our church 
arrived. Among the resident ladies there were several 
who could play the organ, but Mrs. J., the bank agent's 
wife, was acknowledged by all to be the best player. 
As a matter of course I supposed she would be the one 
to play for us in church, and innocently said something 
to that effect to her one day. Shortly after, in con- 
versing with Mrs. P., the pension paymaster's wife, I 
said, " The music will be left in the hands of the ladies, 
and I hope you will arrange everything satisfactorily." 
To this she replied that she would be most happy to 
see to the matter. The next day, while Mrs. S., the 
judge's wife, was taking out my wife for an evening 
drive, she hinted rather jealously that it was very 
strange Mrs. J. had been asked to play the organ ; she 
being only a bank agent's wife, had no social standing, 
while such a matter ought to go according to prece- 
dence. The same night a friend of mine was dining at 
the civil surgeon's, and had the pleasure of hearing me 
soundly abused — in a polite way, of course — for asking 
Mrs. P. to arrange the music without consulting the 
hostess, Mrs. T., who claimed to be ahead of Mrs. P. in 
precedence. Alas, alas, what had I done ? What was 
I to do ? I said to myself, " Now as to the judge's wife, 
she certainly will not play since she knows I have asked 
Mrs. J. ; so I will write her a note and ask her to play. 
Then, after she has had the honor of declining, I can 



ANGLO-INDIANS. 283 

offer the same honor to Mrs. T., the surgeon's wife, and 
as she makes no pretensions to play, she will also most 
probably decline. Then I can in some way divide the 
honor between the remaining two, Mrs. P. and Mrs. J." 

Away went the boy with the note to Mrs. S. In a 
few minutes he returned with the, to me, very unsatis- 
factory reply that she would be most happy to comply 
with my request. Then, where was my well-laid plan ? 
What was I to say to Mrs. J. and Mrs. P., who had 
already not only understood it so themselves, but had, 
each of them, informed their friends and the station in 
general that I had formally and unreservedly asked 
each of them to play the organ ? I found that the more 
I tried to explain, the worse the matter got mixed up, 
so I withdrew in silence, vowing that henceforth I should 
consult the "Warrant of Precedence," published by 
order of the Indian government and approved by the 
secretary of state for India, before saying anything more 
than "Good evening" or "Good morning" to my fair 
neighbors. 

Even at social games you are to bear in mind who 
" precedes," and before tossing the ball across the Bad- 
minton net, you are to give it such a turn as will send 
it to the lady " entitled" to begin. After the play, when 
all sit down for a few minutes' social chat, woe be to the 
lady who, wishing to go home to her crying baby, rises 
to take leave before the " head of the station" sees fit to 
start the usual bowing and hand-shaking. Should a 
lady of a lower place in the social scale be so bold as 
to assume such a prerogative, she is quiedy marked for 



284 E VER Y-DA Y LIFE IN INDIA . 

the silent social arrows of her "superiors." Not a word 
may be said, but she is made to feel her punishment in 
various ways all the more. 

The fact is the whole thing is so childish and ridicu- 
lous, that if it were admitted as a subject for rational 
discussion, it would at once collapse and become a 
laughing-stock ; but so long as it can be kept in silent 
awe, it retains its mysterious power. 

COMFORT AND RECREATION. 

Servants being cheap and plenty in India, British 
officials with their handsome salaries can surround 
themselves with a degree of personal comfort and out- 
ward show which would be considered extravagant lux- 
ury in Europe or America. It must be considered, 
however, that what might jusdy be considered a luxury 
there, may be only a necessary comfort in a tropical 
country. 

The climate of most parts of India is extremely try- 
ing to European residents, producing not only bodily 
debility, but also mental irritability. The fierce sun and 
the hot winds, as they affect our bodily comfort, are not 
our worst enemies. By means of swinging punkahs, 
dripping cuscus tatties, and revolving thermantidotes, 
we can to some extent protect ourselves against these, 
but against bodily debility and mental irritability what 
protection can we devise ? The effect which a tropical 
climate has upon the mind of Europeans is too fre- 
quently left out of the account in reckoning the discom- 
forts of such a residence. Nervous irritability, brought 



ANGLO-INDIANS. 287 

on by living in India, is to-day consuming the life and 
happiness of one half the British officials in this country. 

Not only does the climate tend to make one nervous 
and irritable, but it also dulls the mind, making one dis- 
inclined to mental effort. 

With endless leisure on their hands, English ladies 
in India — and there are many of fine culture among 
them — have added but little of value to literature or art. 
The same may be said of those sinecure officials who 
are found in almost every station. Not only this, but 
even sohd reading becomes distasteful, so that the daily 
paper, a few magazines, and an occasional novel, seem 
to supply sufficient mental food for the average Anglo- 
Indian resident. As a consequence, the social talk is 
generally of the smallest kind, scarcely doing credit to 
the chosen representatives of the most cultured and en- 
lightened countries in the world. I say this, not to the 
discredit of European residents in India, but in illustra- 
tion of the depressing influence of the climate. 

To guard against this depressing influence, Euro- 
pean residents engage in frequent out-door games and 
sports, such as croquet, cricket, rackets, archery, polo, 
and especially the favorite Indian game of Badminton. 
Here early in the morning or late in the afternoon, all 
who can possibly do so meet for recreation and amuse- 
ment. The effect of such an exercise upon both the 
body and the mind is most beneficial. Upon the play- 
ground, office and household cares are forgotten, dig- 
nity is laid aside, and the staid generals and judges, 
doctors of law, of medicine, and of divinity, with their 



288 EVERY-DA V LIFE IN INDIA, 

matronly wives, are boys and girls again. This hour 
the European residents may be thus unbent, while, the 
next, one may be gravely weighing judgment in a mat- 
ter of life and death, another may be amputating a limb, 
and a third preaching the gospel to an eager crowd in 
the bazaar. 

SOCIABILITY WITH NATIVES. 

Between Europeans and natives there is no free, 
hearty, social intercourse. This is the fact, undisputed 
by all and lamented by many. 

The causes of the social gulf between the two classes, 
and the means of bridging over this gulf, have been ex- 
tensively discussed in public prints of late years, but so 
far to but little advantage. The separation still remains 
and is likely to remain for many years to come. Euro- 
peans and natives work well together in an official ca- 
pacity, but when it comes to matters of a social nature 
they act upon each other Hke oil and water. By out- 
ward pressure they may be made to commingle tempo- 
rarily, but when left to themselves they separate as by 
the laws of gravitation. 

It is the fashion to start out in the discussion of this 
subject with, " The fault Hes with" this party, that party, 
or with both. First of all, we question whether there is 
any special /^e^// about it. We may love the Hindu as 
our neighbor, in accordance with the gospel injunction, 
without being fond of him as a social companion. We 
may even yearn over his spiritual condition, and be 
willing to sacrifice our own means and comfort for his 



ANGLO-INDIANS. 289 

welfare, without feeling any desire to be intimately asso- 
ciated with him personally. 

No doubt the social separation between the Hindus 
and ourselves is greatly to be regretted, inasmuch as it 
acts as a barrier to our best efforts for their welfare, but 
even this does not justify us in calling it a fault for which 
either party is to blame. 

If we put the case into milder language, and ask 
what are the reasons for this separation, we should say 
they are many and various. 

In the first place, Europeans and Hindus are differ- 
ent by nature, and yet much more so by social and re- 
ligious education. There are natures even of the same 
nationality so diverse in all their qualities that they in- 
stinctively shrink from each other. 

Does an honest, frank, sincere man form close friend- 
ship with a fawning, double-faced flatterer ? No. Nei- 
ther will Europeans, as long as they have the blood of 
the Franks in their veins, be able to form close friend- 
ship with deceitful, designing Orientals. Whatever 
may be the virtues and the vices of either party, on this 
point Europeans and Hindus act on each other like the 
different poles of the magnet. 

The European wants a friend who is a friend to the 
heart. The Hindu is satisfied with a show of friend- 
ship. 

The Hindu in his heart likes the European no bet- 
ter than the European likes him, but in accordance with 
his insincere nature he would be quite willing to keep 
up, in his own way, a semblance of the closest friend - 
,32 



290 E VER Y-DA V LIFE IN INDIA . 

ship. This the European scorns to do, and with a 
haughtiness which does him no credit he ignores the 
Hindu altogether. 

Again, so long as Hindus refuse to dine with Euro- 
peans and affect a silly caste sanctity, so long must they 
expect Europeans to regard them as becomes their su- 
perstitious bigotry. 

We have known a few natives— men who had been 
educated in England and had broken away from their 
caste prejudices, debasing idolatry, and Oriental du- 
plicity — whom we could greet as hearty friends, whom 
we could trust and love, and to whom we could even 
confide a secret. In our friendship with them no 
thought of race or color ever intruded, and it is our 
firm conviction that whenever the natives of India rise 
above these three — caste, idolatry, and duplicity — Eu- 
ropeans will bury their pride of race and will meet them 
on a common social level, giving them all the consider- 
ation, respect, and confidence to which their education 
and general worth may entitle them. 

ETIQUETTE. 

Social forms are strictly observed among all classes, 
from the viceroy's court down to the very lowest repre- 
sentatives of European society. In court circles ladies 
are gravely informed by published cards on what occa- 
sions they may appear without " trains," and on what 
occasions they will be required to wear such appenda- 
ges. The dress for European gentlemen and natives is 
likewise prescribed in cautious detail, and none but 



ANGLO-INDIANS. 291 

those who have the "wedding-garment" on are admit- 
ted to receptions by public officials. 

In their adherence to custom — simply because it is 
custom — the rulers of India are not far behind the ruled. 
The Hindus, in their world- renowned blind following of 
the customs of their ancestors, are guilty of but few 
more ridiculous and unreasonable acts than the Eng- 
lishmen's practice of wearing high silk hats and broad- 
cloth coats in a seething tropical country, because it is 
" the thing " in London and Paris ! 

It is easy to deride the young Hindu for his lack of 
courage in not breaking away from the customs which 
he knows are silly and unreasonable, but show us the 
young civilian or the brave subaltern who has the cour- 
age to appear at an evening party in a dress becoming 
the cHmate of India. What a beautiful spectacle of 
freedom, of thought-emancipated manhood, the en- 
lightened European presents to his custom -bound be- 
holders, as at mid-day, with a fierce tropical sun over 
his head, he goes forth encased in patent-leather boots, 
broadcloth suit, kid gloves, and a high silk hat, to make 
social (?) calls upon a circle of friends, every one of 
whom would consider it the greatest kindness not to be 
disturbed at this hour of the day. Why at this unbe- 
coming hour ? and why this suit of black in a country 
where man and nature abhor black? Custom, unso- 
phisticated reader, custom ! India is noted for custom. 

Among other social forms with which the new-comer 
has at once to acquaint himself, is the order of making 
calls observed in most parts of India. On this subject 



292 E VER Y-DA Y LIFE IN INDIA . 

the rules are reversed. The new resident must call on 
the old ones first, and not wait to be sought by them, 
as he might do in England or America. Should he 
conclude to do the latter, he would not only be severely 
let alone, but he would be considered guilty of having 
slighted the community to which he socially belongs. 

Soon after arriving in a station, the new-comer is 
expected to call upon all the residents with whom he 
expects to be on social terms. In a small station this 
generally includes all the European residents, and if 
any are left out of these first calls, they do not feel par- 
ticularly pleased over it. After the new-comer has 
called on the residents in this manner, the gentlemen 
return his calls, or if social rules are not too strictly 
observed, the ladies will accompany their husbands if 
the new arrival be a married man. After this the new- 
comer makes another call around the station in com- 
pany with his wife, when the initiation is over, the ac- 
quaintance complete, and the friendship about as strong 
as it usually grows in Indian stations. 

The official rank of a resident is supposed to regu- 
late his style of living and amount of entertaining. In 
the olden days, it is said, social entertaining among 
Anglo-Indians was carried on much more extravagant- 
ly, as well as more extensively, than at the present day. 
The cost of living is much greater now than formerly, 
while the salaries of the officials, owing to the deprecia- 
tion of the silver rupee, are much less. This may have 
had a repressing influence upon social entertaining, but 
we must not be understood to say that the ordinary 



ANGLO-INDIANS, 293 

Indian station of the present day is without a good 
share of this kind of recreation. With the numerous 
"quiet" dinners and chota hazaris, or "Httle break- 
fasts," the occasional station-dinners, and the almost 
daily Badminton, croquet, or other garden parties, the 
modern Indian station cannot be said to be devoid of 
entertainments. 

SUPPLIES. 

In India this word " supplies " means a great deal. 
It has even become vernacularized, and the village 
munsif who knows no other English word, knows what 
the collector, engineer, or missionary means when he 
•asks for " supplies." It means, in short, everything and 
anything needed for use, comfort, or convenience. Eu- 
ropeans in India depend for their clothing, and to some 
extent for their food, upon imported articles, or what 
native shopkeepers call " Europe goods." 

American and European canned meats, fruits, and 
vegetables, are extensively used by those who can 
afford such luxuries, but in the main the European has 
to depend upon the local bazaar for his daily food. 
Mutton, fowls, eggs, coffee, sugar, native fruits, and 
vegetables, are to be obtained in all the towns and vil- 
lages where there is a demand for them. 

The famous Bass beer is imported and consumed in 
enormous quantities. From a British point of view no 
dinner is complete without beer, and none is considered 
drinkable but that which comes from " home." 

Beer, however indispensable, is by no means suffi- 



294 E VER Y-DA Y LIFE IN INDIA, 

dent for British dinners. Two or three kinds of wine 
at least, with " brandy and soda" as an optional reserve, 
are also considered indispensable to a respectable din- 
ner. Consequently, wines and liquors of all conceiva- 
ble names, descriptions, and qualities, are imported 
from Europe, and the liquor-trade of India, by its vast- 
ness, prominence, and respectability, shocks the Amer- 
ican new-comer, who has been taught to look upon 
such a business as falling scarcely within the province 
of respectable dealers. Column after column of the 
daily papers you find filled with advertisements of the 
various brands of wines and liquors for sale by Euro- 
pean and native firms. 

With scarcely an exception, outside of the missiona- 
ries, European residents feel called upon to keep on 
hand a complete stock of beer, wines, and liquors, for 
their own use and for the entertainment of their friends. 
" Our liquor bills are our heaviest drain, and they for 
ever keep us poor," is the cry of many a European res- 
ident in India. This country has not yet caught the 
spirit of temperance reform, and the total abstainer is 
looked upon as a weak-minded, goody-goody ex- 
tremist. 

We trust the tidal -wave of temperance reform, 
which has long since made liquor-drinking and liquor- 
selling disreputable in America, and is now beginning 
to work the same glorious effect in England, may also 
find its way to India, and there attach such a stigma to 
the social cup as shall make the importation of foreign 
liquors an unprofitable and undesirable business, and 



ANGLO-INDIANS. 295 

thus save the life, health, and money, of many a British 
official and the honor of the Christian name in a hea- 
then land. * 

For clothing, the European is dependent almost 
wholly upon imported materials. In the cities he can 
obtain these from either European or native tailoring 
establishments with the same facility that he can get 
them in London or Paris, though with scarcely the 
same ** set." The latest and best outfit in Madras or 
Bombay seems strangely out of style when displayed 
in Hyde Park or on the Champs Elysees. 

Residents in the up-country stations have an occa- 
sional opportunity of replenishing their supply of dry- 
goods and notions from a travelling hawker's box. 

The Indian hawker is a permanent institution and 
one not to be altogether despised. To deal with him 
to your own advantage requires time, patience, good- 
humor, and experience. Indian hawkers speak Eng- 
lish — such as it is, and they all seem to have been made 
after the same pattern. Approaching your house, they 
introduce themselves by yelling, '' Hawker, mam, hawk- 
er, sar; got plenty fine goods, children's clothing, misses' 
dresses, masters' tweeds, stockings, handkerchiefs, pep- 
permint-lozenges, soap, needles, pins, flannels, writing- 
paper superfine, envelopes all sizes, steel-pens, odi- 
klone" (which means eau de Cologne) "and — " By 
this time he has brought somebody to the door, who 
either orders him away or tells him to come in. If al- 
lowed to come in, he unhitches the litde bullock which 
draws his small two-wheeled cart, speedily deposits two 



296 E VER Y-DA Y LIFE IN INDIA. 

or three large trunks on your veranda, squats on the 
floor beside them, and begins to unpack, meanwhile 
keeping up the description of his wonderful goods. 

His stock is generally composed of unsalable auc- 
tion goods which he has secured at a trifling cost, but 
which he insists upon are " first-class, new Europe 
goods come by last steamer through Suez Canal and 
very cheap" — at three times their value. 

For asking high prices and reducing them to effect 
a sale, the Indian hawker quite outdoes the Jew. To 
ask three rupees a yard for goods, and finally sell them 
for half a rupee, is no extraordinary feat ; and while the 
buyer is congratulating himself upon the liberal reduc- 
tion which he has received, he has greater need of ma- 
king sure that he is not taken in after all. 

The Indian hawker, though an utter stranger to 
truthfulness, and preeminently a man of one idea, and 
that only the size of a silver rupee, is nevertheless often 
a welcome visitor at the Anglo-Indian bungalow, where 
he supplies trifling necessities not easily procured else- 
where, and where his lively presence is not unfrequently 
hailed with satisfaction, simply because it breaks the dead 
monotony of Anglo-Indian home-life. 

TENT-LIFE. 

Camping out, not for pleasure, but for business, is 
a peculiar feature of European life in India. Except a 
few "Travellers' Bungalows," which are situated only 
along the main roads, there are no houses available for 
Europeans in their travels about the country. 



ANGLO-INDIANS, 299 

Collectors, sub-collectors, and other revenue officers, 
engineers, overseers, and Public Works' Department 
officers generally, police superintendents, and mission- 
aries, are required to travel about the country a great 
part of the year. They must supply themselves with 
tents; there is no alternative. Their food they must 
have brought from the nearest station where there are 
European residents. In an ordinary village not so 
much as a pound of sugar or a package of tea can be 
procured. Articles of native consumption, as milk, 
rice, fowls, and eggs, may by considerable trouble be 
gotten in most villages. Tent-life in India is not pleas- 
ant during the greater part of the year, and for some 
months, during the rainy and hot seasons, it is well- 
nigh unendurable. It is, however, a necessity which 
many Anglo-Indians have to meet, with all its attend- 
ant inconvenience and discomfort. 

SEPARATION OF FAMILIES. 

One of the saddest features of European life In India 
is the separation of families which it entails. 

European children, after they are from seven to ten 
years of age, cannot be kept in India without great dan- 
ger to them, physically, morally, and intellectually. If 
they are at an early age transferred to hill sanitaria, and 
are not allowed to associate with natives, the danger of 
deterioration is lessened, but even such an arrangement 
cannot take the place of a European home and sur- 
roundings, while the separation from parents which it 
necessitates is scarcely less. 
33 



300 E VER Y-DA Y LIFE IN INDIA . 

Whatever those may think who have no experience 
in the matter, the European residents have no doubt 
that it is their duty, however sad a one, to send their 
children away from India at a very early age. 

The pale, sickly, colorless faces of European chil- 
dren in India startle the new-comer, and show him 
the deadly nature of the climate. 

The evil effects of the association of children with 
servants and other natives are scarcely less dreaded than 
their physical deterioration. Filthy language and na- 
tive ideas of the most objectionable kind, notwithstand- 
ing the greatest precaution on the part of parents, are 
sure to become familiar to children who have been kept 
long in India. All their surroundings tend to make 
them haughty, indolent, and worthless. The climate, 
moreover, dulls the mind, so as to make intellectual 
effort a burden ; and under the most favorable circum- 
stances the education of children brought up wholly in 
India is narrow and unsatisfactory. 

Often it becomes necessary for the mother to return 
with the children ; but whether she remain with them or 
with her husband, the family is separated and some of 
the dearest family ties are broken or weakened. That 
joy and satisfaction which parents feel in an unbroken 
family circle, that delightful association of brothers and 
sisters, parents and children around one common hearth, 
and above all, that tender influence which parents have 
or ought to have over their children as they arrive at 
years of responsibility, are for the most part denied to 
European residents in India. 



EURASIANS, 301 



XXXI. EURASIAHS. 

One very important element in the conglomeration 
of races in India is the Eurasian or East Indian com- 
munity. 

The Madras Presidency alone contains about twenty 
thousand of these unfortunate people. We call them 
" unfortunate " advisedly. Sprung originally from in- 
termarriages, and more frequently from illegal connec- 
tions between the women of the lowest classes in India 
and their British conquerors, it is not to be wondered 
at that their position is a peculiarly unenviable one. 

As a rule, they are thriftless in the extreme, too 
proud to work, but not ashamed to beg. It is a com- 
mon saying in regard to them, that " they have inherit- 
ed the vices of both parents and the virtues of neither." 

Considering manual labor beneath them, the aver- 
age Eurasian youth prefers to starve on a salary of ten 
rupees a month as a clerk, to learning and following a 
trade at which he could earn a comfortable livelihood. 

In speaking of what all must admit to be the rule, 
we must not overlook the praiseworthy exceptions. 
There are also men among the Eurasians who by in- 
tegrity, industry, and perseverance have risen to high 
and honorable places as merchants, professional men, 
and government officials. Those who have done so 
deserve the more credit for having overcome the obsta- 
cles to which most of their class succumb. It is unfor- 



302 EVERY-DA Y LIFE IN INDIA, 

tunately the case that Eurasians who have risen to 
places of eminence and influence too often deny the 
class to which they belong, and make but little effort to 
raise those of their brethren who are below them. 

We confess that it is much easier to give advice on 
this subject than it would be to practise it, if placed in 
the position of the Eurasian who has risen above his 
fellows, and we incline to the doctrine that, of all men, 
the British themselves are the ones to take by the 
hand and lead upward these their unfortunate sons and 
daughters. 

Within the last year vigorous efforts in behalf of 
this class have been put forth in various parts of India. 
" Eurasian Associations " have been formed in several 
centres, with the object of inducing the members of this 
class to turn to useful employments, as farmers, artisans, 
messengers, etc. The leaders, who in this case are 
Eurasians themselves, have great difficulties to contend 
with, and they ought to be heartily encouraged both by 
British residents and by the government. 



THE GOVERNMENT, 3^3 



XXXII. THE GOYERHMEKT. 

The government of India is constituted as follows : 

1. The Secretary of State for India, with his council 
of fourteen or fifteen members, and headquarters in 
London. 

2. The Viceroy and Governor- General, assisted by 
his council of about six members, at Calcutta. 

Subordinate to the Viceroy, are the Governors of 
Madras and Bombay, and the Lieutenant-governors of 
Bengal, the Northwest provinces, and the Punjaub, each 
of whom has his separate council to assist him in the 
government of his province. 

In addition to the ordinary members of council, 
there are honorary additional members to make " Laws 
and Regulations," who are selected from the general 
public, European and native, official and non-official. 
By this means natives of position or culture, and Euro- 
peans or Eurasians of distinction in any line of life 
are associated with the government in the legislative 
departments. 

The different departments into which the governing 
machinery is divided are the Financial, the Revenue, 
the Judicial, the Military, the Ecclesiastical, the Educa- 
tional, and the Department of Public Works, or the 
Engineering Department. The officials of the first 
three are members of the " Covenanted Indian Civil 
Service," and taken all in all, form the finest bodies of 



304 E VER Y-DA Y LIFE IN INDIA . 

public servants to be found anywhere. They are well 
paid for their services, and to be admitted into the 
Civil Service of India is considered by young Britons a 
very desirable beginning of life. There is also an un- 
covenanted Civil Service, whose members occupy the 
lower ranks of the Revenue and Judicial departments, 
and as a rule cannot rise beyond a certain well-defined 
line. With the exception of the Financial department 
and the British troops doing duty in India, each presi- 
dency has its several departments entirely distinct from 
those of the other presidencies ; that is to say there is 
a Bengal Civil Service, a Bengal Native Infantry, etc., 
quite distinct from the Madras and the Bombay services. 

The presidencies are subdivided into districts ; and 
each district is supervised by a collector, who not only 
has the revenue in all its ramifications under his con- 
trol, but exercises magisterial functions, and is in fact a 
small governor in his way. Under him are the sub- 
coUector and joint magistrate, a head assistant, and one 
or more assistants (all belonging to the highly paid 
Civil Service, or " heavhen born," as they are some- 
times called), all of whom must be prepared at any 
moment to do anything, from quelling a rebellion to 
examining a griffin in any of the vernacular languages. 

In passing it may be said, that if the government is 
ever at a loss for a postmaster-general, a director of 
public instruction, or a controlling spirit in any line, 
recourse is had to the Civil Service list, which is always 
able to furnish a man willing, and generally one able, to 
supply the want. The other day a member of the 



THE GOVERNMENT. 305 

Bengal Civil Service (who has risen to the position of 
" Governor of Bombay"), after superintending the rapid 
construction of a railway from the confines of India into 
Afghanistan, sat down to write an exhaustive report on 
the condition and efficiency of one of the brigades now 
on active service, and it may be added that his report 
has met with unqualified approval from military critics. 
But to return to the district. In addition to the 
collector and his assistants, every district has a sessions 
judge, whose powers extend to the extreme penalty of 
the law, there being a right of appeal to the high court 
of the presidency town. In civil suits the right of 
appeal extends in the last resort to the Privy council of 
the British home government. Besides these members 
of the favored service there are native, Eurasian, and 
European deputy collectors, who have to do with the 
revenue; sub-magistrates, who dispense justice in small 
criminal cases; district munsifs, who deal with civil 
cases only ; and tahsildars, whose office it is to be a 
sort of factotum, in revenue and petty magisterial mat- 
ters, for their Taluks (or divisions of a district). 

*Each district, morever, has a police superintendent, 
with an assistant, who may be either military officers, 
employed in police work, or civilians. When the 
present police system was first introduced, about fifteen 
or seventeen years ago, it was considered expedient to 
officer the force by borrowing from the military depart- 
ment, and many of these officers are still on the police, 
though of late years the government have filled up 
vacancies by employing young civilians, who are sup- 



3o6 E VER Y-DA Y LIFE IN INDIA . 

posed to enter the force first as inspectors and so acquire 
a thorough practical knowledge of their work. This 
rule is not stringently insisted on, especially when the 
aspirant to police honors is a relative of the governor, 
or has interest in high quarters. By the way, speaking 
of the multifarious duties which members of the Civil 
Service are expected to perform, the new poHce system 
was inaugurated by a member of the favored Civil Ser- 
vice, who qualified himself for the post of first inspector 
general of pohce by spending his two years of furlough 
in Bow street, London, studying the details of England's 
detective machinery, and walking the streets of London 
as an amateur constable. Anomalies of this sort are 
common in India. The present director of pubHc in- 
struction in Madras is a colonel in the Madras army, 
and a man whose abihty to fill the post worthily is un- 
questionable, but, as one of the daily papers remarked 
the other day, he is like the fly in amber — we can only 
wonder how he got there. 

ENGLAND'S RESPONSIBILITY. 
History tells the story of Britain's conquest of this 
large and fair dominion. That story is not in all points 
creditable to conquerors calling themselves Christian, 
but it is not our object to discuss here the question of 
Britain's right to India. England's power in India is 
at present undisputed and respected, if not universally 
loved. Her duty is more with the present than with 
the past. In governing and educating her more than 
two hundred millions of Indian subjects, England has 



THE GOVERNMENT. 307 

assumed a moral responsibility, such as perhaps no 
other power in the world ever assumed. In saying this, 
we make no hasty statement. England has undertaken 
to do for India what no other conquerors ever under- 
took to do for so vast a conquered people. She has 
not only made these millions her nominal subjects, but 
she has undertaken to educate them in poHtics, in 
science, in art, in literature, and indirectly in religion. 
What the result will be, a century hence will tell. We 
of the present are not in a favorable position to act as 
judges. The influence of England upon India to-day 
is an interesting study, but the result of that influence as 
it will affect the destinies of both nations a hundred 
years to come will be far more interesting. 

The present is a time of,breaking up the soil and of 
seed-sowing. The years to come will bring forth the 
harvest. If ever a government had special need of 
God's guidance, it is the British government in India. 
While the Christian world at large may not be willing 
to sanction all the acts of this government as being 
strictly in accordance with the spirit of the gospel, it 
must be gratifying to lovers of righteousness everywhere 
to see that devotion to the best interests of the people of 
India which is manifest not only in the acts of Her 
Majesty the Queen Empress herself, but also in those of 
her chief representatives in India. 



34 



3o8 E VER Y-DA Y LIFE IN INDIA, 



XXXIII. D. P. W. 

In officiar circles these well-known initials are said 
to stand for " Department of Public Works." Popu- 
larly they are understood to mean " Department of 
Public Waste." To reconcile these conflicting opinions 
and to give an expressive name to this institution, we 
suggest the addition of another " W " and a rearrange- 
ment as follows : D. W. P. W., so that it may read, 
" Department of Waste on Public Works." For, while 
we cannot deny the waste, we must also admit that it 
produces some useful public works. 

This department of government seems to be encum- 
bered with too many officials and to have been laid out 
on a scale far too vast and expensive for the present 
needs and resources of India. The size of the country 
and the improvements which could be made, rather 
than the wants of the people and the public works which 
are absolutely needed, seem to have been the basis 
upon which it was planned. 

Last year, when retrenchment was the only alterna- 
tive for bankruptcy, the government made an attempt 
to cut down the enormous expenditure of this depart- 
ment, but with very unsatisfactory results. 

British officials have exalted ideas of their " dues," 
and when once taken under the wing of government 
they consider it a grievous wrong to be removed from 
their comfortable shelter. " Once a government ser- 



D. P, IV, 309 

vant, always one," seems to be their motto, and the 
gravity with which the "Supreme Government" re- 
moves a poHce constable, and the perseverance with 
which the mjured man holds on to his "claims," are, to 
an American, sights both novel and ridiculous. 

As the day-laborers were the only parties whom it 
was both safe and easy to remove in the retrenchment 
reformation, the D, P. W., as worked at present in most 
parts of India, presents the comic spectacle of half a 
dozen poor, emaciated coolies superintended by an 
equal number of well-dressed and highly-paid supervi- 
sors, overseers, engineers, and paymasters, who in turn 
superintend each other according to their rank, while 
their pay increases according to such a beautifully as- 
cending series, that even the extra travelling allowance 
of one of the higher officers for a single day far exceeds 
the earnings of a poor coolie for a whole month. 

PUBLIC WORKS NOT APPRECIATED. 

Aside from its expensiveness , the department is 
unpopular with the average Hindu, because he fails to 
appreciate the improvements made. 

As for metalled roads, he says his bullock-cart, not 
being able to cut deep ruts into them, goes to this side 
and to that, worrying the bullocks and preventing him 
from sleeping all the night through, as he used to do when 
it was impossible for the wheels to get out of the ruts. 

As for bridges over streams which can be forded, 
they only give him the additional trouble of having to 
unyoke his bullocks to take them to water. 



3IO EVERY-DA Y LIFE IN INDIA. 

As for canals, he admits that they are not altogether 
useless in times of drought, and that they afford a means 
of travel more rational and suitable than railroads ; but 
that the locks should be built of dressed stone brought 
from a distance, and the gates of costly teak- wood im- 
ported from Burmah, seems to him wilful extravagance, 
fit only for his foreign rulers. 

THE GRIEVANCE OF THE COOLIES. 

The poor coolies who eke out an existence by hard 
labor under the D. P. W., also have a grievance, which 
inclines them to be otherwise than friendly and satis- 
fied. The heartlessness with which the lower native 
officials exact a proportion of the coolies' earnings, and 
the diabolical manner in which avaricious contractors 
cheat them out of their just dues, are almost incredible, 
and quite incomprehensible to those Americans who 
have no proper conception of the utter selfishness which 
prevails in this country. 

So averse are the poor people to work under this 
department in many parts of India, that it is with the 
greatest difficulty laborers can be obtained for its ser- 
vice when other work is available. 

It must be said to the credit of the English officers 
in the department, that they -do the best they can to 
break up the system of extortion and oppression, but 
they are so far removed from the coolies, and the flee- 
cing is done so skilfully and under such intimidations, 
that they are to a great extent unable to prevent it. 



D. P, W, 311 

PERSONAL EXPERIENCE. 

During the famine of 1877-78 I had considerable 
personal experience in D. P. W. matters, having then 
employed hundreds of coolies as a means of famine relief 

The manner — at once so subtle and so effective — in 
which my plans for the good of the poor people and for 
the encouragement of the work were frustrated by the 
subordinate native officials with whom I had to deal, 
was a marvel, a study in human nature, and — something 
more. 

Let me, by way of detail, give a single illustration 
of how such matters are worked. 

Among other work I had engaged to break a thou- 
sand cubic yards of stone. My object was to furnish 
work to people who needed relief, but at the same time I 
was not prepared to lose much money by the operation. 
The English officer in charge gave me every encour- 
agement, and promised me good rates. As the cooHes 
had to be paid each day sufficient to get their food, I 
had to be careful so as not to overpay them for the 
work actually done. The stones being some miles 
away from my home, I could see the coolies only occa- 
sionally, and for the inspection and measurement of the 
work, I had to depend upon the D. P. W. subordinate 
native officials. As they could make nothing out of 
my coolies, and much less anything out of me as a con- 
tractor, it was evidently to their advantage to throw all 
possible impediments in my way, so that I might the 
sooner retire from the field. 

On one occasion when the coolies reported eighty- 



312 EVERY'DA Y LIFE IN INDIA, 

seven yards of stone broken at a certain place, I asked 
the officials in charge to inspect them and report to me 
so that I might pay the coolies in full. After much de- 
lay I received word that the stones were all right, and 
that the supervisor had approved them. When I in- 
sisted upon having a writing to . secure me against loss, 
the gomaster sent me a paper stating that the eighty- 
seven cubic yards of stone had been satisfactorily bro- 
ken. I then paid the coolies, and that settied the mat- 
ter between them and me. 

By some mysterious manipulation this particular lot 
of stone was left out of my bill. When I sent the go- 
master's paper up to the next higher authority, I was 
informed that a gomaster had no business to give such 
a document, and that the stones must be approved in 
writing by the supervisor. Meanwhile several months 
passed away. The matter was referred to a higher 
officer, who promised to go and see the stones himself, 
which he also did after repeated reminders from me, 
just eight months after the work had been first present- 
ed for payment. He then reported to me, in the po- 
litest language possible, that of the eighty-seven cubic 
yards for which I claimed payment only nineteen and a 
half could be found ! What became of the rest, wheth- 
er they were stolen, washed away, blown away, or 
whether they had never been there, I did not think it 
worth while to inquire. A lifetime is scarcely long 
enough to get through with the official correspondence 
which such an investigation in India involves, and as I 
was glad to forget the famine with all its accompani- 



D. P,W. 313 

nlents, I took the pay for the nineteen and a half yards, 
and resolved that I would never enter into D. P. W. 
speculations again, nor advise any of my friends to do 
so — which was precisely the lesson which the native 
officials wanted to impress upon my unsophisticated 
mind. 

One of their own brethren would have gotten the 
matter through without further trouble by "loaning" 
them a few rupees, and he would in the end have come 
out much better than I did, as my readers will perceive. 

From this single illustration they may infer, too, 
why poor people are willing to give small bribes rather 
than incur the displeasure and opposition of Indian sub- 
ordinate native officials. 

Notwithstanding the distrust with which the people 
view this department of government, and the difficul- 
ties under which its work is carried on, the D. P. W. 
has done and is still doing much good for India. 

The substantial roads, with their beautiful shade- 
trees on either side; the handsome bridges, with their 
evidences of engineering skill; the numerous canals, 
with their facilities for irrigation and communication; 
the elegant public buildings, with exquisite taste and 
eminent utility combined — are all monuments which 
will perpetuate the English name in India ; and when 
British judges, collectors, and generals shall have beei^ 
forgotten in this land, the works of the British civil en- 
gineer will remain — a memento of the good intentions 
and of the mechanical skill of India's present rulers. 



314 EVERY-DA V LIFE IN INDIA, 



XXXIY. MODERH PUBLIC IMPROYE- 
MEKTS. 

India has railways, telegraphs, a local and foreign 
mail service, and other modern public improvements, 
but many of these, like her schools and colleges, are 
not so much an outgrowth of a felt, popular want, as an 
indication of the wishes and spirit of her foreign rulers. 
They are for the most part a heavy drain upon the gov- 
ernment treasury, and consequently a burden upon the 
taxpayer. 

The great bulk of the people have but little use for 
railways and postoffices, and still less for telegraphs. 
To the government, European residents, and a small 
section of the native community, these institutions are a 
necessity, and the government is no doubt justifiable in 
keeping them up even at considerable expense. Hav- 
ing been called into existence as government machin- 
ery, rather than by popular demand, and being con- 
trolled chiefly by government orders, railway and tele- 
graph rules and regulations have a peculiar conservative 
spirit about them which contrasts strangely with West- 
ern private enterprise. 

For instance, instead of the American rule, " Night 
messages at half-price," the Indian order says, " Night 
messages double rates." Instead of devising means for 
running fast express trains by night, the Indian govern- 
ment is at present contemplating the discontinuance of 



MODERN PUBLIC IMPROVEMENTS. 315 

night trains altogether on the South India railways, on 
account of their heavy expense and poor patronage. 

All the larger cities, as Calcutta, Bombay, Madras, 
Delhi, and Hyderabad, are now connected by railways, 
and in case of famine in any part of India, or a sudden 
disturbance among the people which might make the 
presence of troops necessary, these lines of railway are 
of Immense value to the government. 

They are also extensively used as a means of travel- 
ling by all classes of natives, but as they almost Invari- 
ably travel " third class," the receipts from this source 
are comparatively small. 

The cars — or " carriages," as they say east of the 
Atlantic — are of the English style, and are arranged for 
first, second, and third-class passengers. The fares av- 
erage (In U. S. money) about the following: first-class 
travelling, four and a half cents a mile ; second class, 
two cents, and third class, one cent. This makes third- 
class travelling very cheap, but no cheaper than it is 
uncomfortable, while the first-class passengers have to 
pay rather heavily for their special accommodations. 
Even then they look In vain for drinking-water, water- 
closets, and other conveniences of American railways. 

The " iron horse," as he speeds his ponderous train 
past — or it may be over — these sleepy Indian villages, 
is a wonder no less to the thoughtful European than to 
the bewildered Hindu. How many thousands of years 
would have had to elapse before India herself would 
have produced a steam-engine? What would be the 
fate of railways and other public Improvements If given 
35 



3i6 EVERY-DA V LIFE IN INDIA, 

over altogether to native management ? When would 
the trains get ready to start ? When would they arrive, 
if ever ? How soon would all the time-tables be lost, 
the switches forgotten, and the last train come to grief? 
Such are some of the thoughts which crowd upon the 
European as he looks upon railways in India. The 
native, on the other hand, is not so greatly affected by 
the sight as one might expect. His religion teaches 
him to be never either greatly grieved, pleased, or sur- 
prised, and he acts out its precepts to perfection. 

The equanimity with which the natives of India ac- 
cept railways, telegraphs, steamboats, and all other 
Western improvements, is amazing and sometimes an- 
noying. He looks upon them as a matter of course, 
belonging to Europeans much as silk hats and black 
coats belong to them, being just the thing for Euro- 
peans to invent and use ; but as for their being objects 
of wonder, an exponent of national greatness, or an 
evidence of superior culture — such intricate reasoning 
does not disturb his complacency. In rural districts 
not one man in ten knows or cares to know of what 
use telegraph-wires are. That they are something for 
which the " rulers " have use, and that when they work 
them a buzzing noise is heard (especially when the wind 
blows), is the extent of the villagers' knowledge of tele- 
graphy. The philanthropist who should attempt to 
enlighten them on this interesting subject, as they are 
gathered in their bazaars, would probably soon find 
himself without an audience. Such is the thirst for 
knowledge in rural Indian villages ! 



MODERN PUBLIC IMPROVEMENTS. 317 

In the cities and towns native merchants are begin- 
ning to make a free use of the telegraph. This was 
especially the case during the late famine, when for- 
tunes depended upon the fluctuating prices of grain in 
neighboring districts. 

The system of telegraph rates is not based upon dis- 
tance here as in America. A message of six words 
may be sent for one rupee between any two stations in 
India. To send messages between India and Burmah 
or Ceylon the rates are somewhat higher. Wonderful 
changes has this nineteenth century wrought even here 
in India. Less than fifty years ago it took the greater 
part of a year to send a message to America and re- 
ceive a reply to it. Now we may converse with our 
friends in Philadelphia, our agents in London, and our 
fellow-missionaries in China, all in the same day ! From 
any ordinary town in India messages may be sent to 
any part of the civilized world, and the doings of this 
afternoon in Calcutta may be read in this morning's 
papers in New York, printed and read before by appa- 
rent time they have taken place ! 

The only check to this kind of talking is its expen- 
siveness, in which it exceeds even that of popular lec- 
tures in America. 

Each word to Europe costs $1 25 ; to the United 
States of America, $2 25 ; to China, $2 50 ; and to Lima 
in Peru, $8, which is the highest rate I find on the whole 
list. 

All government and press messages are sent at spe- 
cial rates. 



3i8 EVKRY-VA Y LIFE IN INDIA, 

THE POSTAL ARRANGEMENTS 
of India are also very satisfactory. The local postage 
is only half an anna — a cent and a half — for letters of 
one-fourth ounce weight and under. Post-cards at a 
quarter of an anna have lately been issued and are rap- 
idly finding public favor. 

The foreign postage to Europe and America has 
within the last three years been reduced by more than 
half. Via Brindisi, which is the quickest route, letters 
are carried now for four and a half annas. This is, 
however, more than twice the rate of postage on letters 
to India from America, which is only five cents. Why 
it should cost so much more to carry \^\Xexsfrom than 
to India, the British postal authorities in connection 
with the "Postal Union" can probably explain to their 
own satisfaction, if not to that of European residents in 
India. 

The inland mails, as well as the " Parcel Post," which 
carries packages of fifty pounds and under, are con- 
veyed, where there are no railways, by coolies. These 
" Tappal Runners," as they are called, are a unique In- 
dian institution. On the main roads you cannot go far, 
either by day or night, before meeting some of them. 
They are generally small, light men, such being better 
adapted to quick travelling. Their only clothing con- 
sists of a turban or headdress and a cloth about the 
loins. On a stick across the shoulder hang the mail- 
bags. To the same stick are tied a number of small 
bells, which keep time to their running, and always re- 
mind us of sleigh-bells in America. 



MODERN PUBLIC IMPROVEMENTS. 319 

The object of these bells is to warn travellers of the 
approach of the runners, so that their progress may not 
be impeded, to give evidence to all within hearing dis- 
tance that they are running at a good speed, and thus 
doing their duty, and to assist the runners in keeping 
up spirit, upon the same principle as martial music and 
regular time aid soldiers in making quick and long 
marches. On the through-mail routes one man runs 
from six to ten miles, when he is relieved and a fresh 
runner takes his place. In this way the mails are car- 
ried at the rate of five or six miles an hour over roads 
where wheeled vehicles could not pass at all, and where 
horses or any other beasts of burden could in no wise 
compete in either speed or economy with the fleet- 
footed tappal runners. 

Another peculiarity of the Indian mail service is 
that no mail-bags are locked. They are simply tied 
up, and sealed in such a manner as to make the least 
attempt at opening them apparent. Chests of silver, 
gold, and other valuables, are sent under the same pre- 
caution from place to place, and it is in many respects 
more secure than the lock system. 

MONEY, WEIGHTS, AND MEASURES. 
The principal circulating coin of India is the silver 
rupee. In size and weight it resembles our own Ameri- 
can silver half-dollar and the English half-crown. Its 
par value is two English shillings, but at present It is 
depreciated, and sells on exchange at only about one 
shilling and eightpence. 



320 E VERV-DA Y LTEE IN INDIA. 

Sixteen annas make a rupee, and twelve pice make 
one anna. An anna is therefore roughly valued at 
three cents, and a pice at a fourth of a cent. Copper 
coins of the value of one pice, three pice, and six pice, 
are in circulation ; also silver two-anna, four-anna, and 
eight-anna pieces. 

India has no gold currency at present. English 
sovereigns, French napoleons, and old Indian pagodas 
and mohrs are occasionally exchanged in business trans- 
actions, but they are not generally recognized as cur- 
rent coins. The government has also in circulation 
" currency notes," ranging from five rupees upwards, 
but they are not generally used by the people through^ 
out the villages. Merchants frequently use them for 
transmitting money through the mails. This is done 
by cutting the notes into halves, and then sending each 
piece separately, waiting until the receipt of the first has 
been acknowledged before the second is sent. After 
both halves have been received, they are pasted together 
again by laying a piece of thin paper over the back. 
In this way the banker's commission is saved. 

The native states are gradually dispensing with their 
own coinage and are adopting the British currency of 
India. There is even now great simplicity in the cur- 
rency of India, and the uniformity promises to become 
still more complete. 

With weights and measures the very reverse is the 
case. It would probably be difficult to find so great a 
variety and confusion in this respect in any other coun- 
try of equal size in the world. 



MODERN PUBLIC IMPRO VEMENTS. 321 

The yard, the pound, and the gallon, are all un- 
known in India, and almost every village has its own 
standards of weight and measurement. We might say 
for " long measure " every man has his own standard, 
being the cubit, or the length of his arm from the fin- 
ger-tips to the elbow. 

The metrical system of weights and measures has 
been adopted by the government of India, but so far no 
attempts have been made at practically introducing it. 

The tola — 180 grains, or nearly the weight of a sil- 
ver rupee ; the viss — nearly 3 lbs. ; and the maund — 25 
lbs. in Madras and 82 lbs. in Calcutta — are the most 
common denominations of weight. The native markets 
are, however, by no means confined to these. 

In dry and liquid measure the confusion is bewil- 
dering. The seer, which is^of almost any size from a 
pint to a gallon, is the most common. To arrive at 
some standard, however unsatisfactory, the government 
has decided that a seer of rice must weigh two pounds. 

We trust the government will take active steps to 
introduce the metrical system in all its forms through- 
out India. It is greatly needed, and would be not only 
a convenience to trade and a check to fraud, but also 
an honor to the government which should be able to 
induce its subjects to make a change which, though for 
their own good, is attended with so many difficulties. 



322 EVERY-DA Y LIFE IN INDIA. 



XXXY. THE TRAVELLED HIUDU. 

As this is a subject preeminently suited to be seen 
through native eyes and discussed from a native point 
of view, we shall let a Hindu, not a " travelled one," 
but a clever stay-at-home Hindu, be our spokesman :* 

" We do not agree with those who object to a visit 
to England per se, whether it be one of business or 
pleasure, but we do certainly think the practice, unfor- 
tunately becoming common every day, of adopting 
foreign customs and manners to the utter exclusion of 
our own simpler and more suitable ones — in a word, 
the consummate folly of our Anglicizing ourselves — is 
one against which it is impossible to speak in terms too 
strong, as it is one not only supremely ridiculous, but 
even ruinous to our prospects of national advancement. 

" Without further preface, we may proceed to say 
that, as there are different types of the same stock to be 
met with in the animal and vegetable creation, so, too, 
there are different types of the particular class whose 
collective designation we have chosen as the title of this 
paper. There is, for instance, Mrs. Mary Joseph (as 
she dearly loves to hear herself called), a devout mem- 
ber, of long standing, of a certain establishment in India. 
In her younger days Mrs J. was known by the name, far 
more familiar to Hindu ears than her present one, of 

* From a series of " Pen and Ink Sketches of Native 
Character by a Hindu," in the Madras Times, 1879. 



THE TRAVELLED HINDU. 323 

Adi Lakshmi : and was not a bad-looking ayah (child's 
maid) in the service of the missionary at * our station ' 
in the mofussil. * Her naturally intelligent mind,' we 
quote from the Society's Report of Missionary Labor 
in Foreign Lands, * soon laid itself open to the teach- 
ings of Christianity ;' and, accompanying the aforemen- 
tioned missionary's family on their voyage home by 
way of the European continent and the British Isles, 
she returned home, after a stay of several years, a full- 
fledged ' Native Christian Lady ' ! She is now the ma- 
tron, we believe, of the * Girls' Boarding School,' and 
we have more than once had the privilege of listen- 
ing to her conducting what she called ' meeteen ' {An- 
glice, meeting), one part of the proceeding being the 
singing of an English hymn. Mrs. Joseph also occa- 
sionally introduces certain very sensible changes in her 
costume, such as the putting on of a thick pair of boots 
in cold or wet weather, not omitting to pull on a woollen 
night-cap over her head and ears before she retires to 
rest every night. 

" Then, there is our friend Ramasami, with whom, 
we fancy, some at least of our Anglo-Indian readers 
must be famihar. He is another personage to whom 
the term ' travelled Hindu ' might strictly be applied, in 
his professional capacity of cook or body-servant along 
with some Anglo-Indian Officer on the latter's final 
return home; and he holds not a few testimonials 
speaking of his character in terms of the highest praise. 
You will be simply overpowered if you just ask him 
one question regarding his English experiences, so 

36 



324 E VER Y-DA Y LIFE IN INDIA. 

ready and willing is he to hold forth on particulars 
connected with what there can be no doubt has been 
the greatest event of his life. We might also name our 
other friend, the Rev. Mr. Rangasami, as a third indi- 
vidual whom we might class under the * travelled Hin- 
du ' heading. It is true he did not go to England (or 
Scotland I forget which) as a delegate from missions 
here, any more than he travelled thither as 'boy' or 
bearer to his missionary superior; nor did he do much, if 
anything, by way of taking such audiences by storm as 
assemble at Exeter Hall or similar arenas; but still he 
has been across the * black water ;' and his predilection 
for England and English things generally is as sincere 
and strong as it is of the most undisguised character. 

" None, however, of the three people we have men- 
tioned come up to our idea of the travelled Hindu par 
excellence ; because, though there is no doubt they have 
travelled, they are not very representative characters ; 
nor does their influence extend or make itself felt to 
any degree of importance. The kind of travelled Hin- 
du to whom we purpose confining our remarks on the 
present occasion is a very different person, every way, 
from Mrs. Joseph, or Messrs. Ramasami and Rangasa- 
mi. His visit to England has been at a time and under 
circumstances wherein he could see not a little, and 
judge for himself a good deal ; and, moreover, has ex- 
tended over a pretty considerable period — so consider- 
' able a period indeed as to metamorphose him into an 
Englishman in everything except the color of his skin. 
Leaving his native land, comparatively unaccustomed 



THE TEA VEILED HINDU. 325 

to associate with Europeans of any social standing, and 
almost wholly unacquainted with the interior economy 
of English domestic life, our travelled Hindu returns, 
brimful of English fashions, fastasticalities, and foUies, 
and either cannot or will not find it possible to resetde 
himself down into the quiet, homely and, on the whole, 
comfortable groove in which he had been moving ere 
he left these shores. The palate that has become ac- 
customed to taste bacon and eggs, washed down with 
claret or coffee at breakfast, to sandwiches and sherry 
at luncheon, and to roast beef, accompanied perhaps by 
champagne at dinner, must find ' curry and rice ' rather 
tame. The hmbs that have been encased for a couple 
or three years in the dainty, ' stylish ' productions in the 
tailoring line of Poole et id genus omne, must no doubt 
feel considerably uneasy in the graceful, light, and suita- 
ble waist cloth. But we ask, how did our travelled 
friend feel when he first tasted English cooking or first 
wore English costume? Surely it must be easier to 
revert to the habits one has been used to for years, 
and which fit in perfectly with one's circumstances of 
birth, position, and climate, than to keep to habits but 
recendy acquired, and acquired only in adapting one- 
self to a foreign and particularly trying situation of a 
very temporary character. Our travelled Hindu friends, 
however, we regret to observe, think otherwise. At all 
events, it looks, if we are to judge of them by their 
deeds, as if they think otherwise. Nothing with them 
can at all approach excellence, not to say perfection, 
that is not English ; while, on the other hand, every- 



326 EVERY-DAY LIFE IN INDIA. 

thing native that should commend itself to them on the 
ground of early association (if no other) is looked upon 
as ' coarse/ * vulgar,' or perhaps ' barbarous ' ! Let us, 
however, pay one a visit at his house. You will have 
no great difficulty in finding it, for he takes as good 
care that it is in a fashionable {i. e., European-peopled) 
locality, as he does to have a sign -board up with his 
name at the gate. Some time after your card has been 
taken in, you will probably get an invitation to come 
into the 'office-room,' 'master' (whose master?) evi- 
dently not being sure whether your visit is one of busi- 
ness or of compliment. The first question, therefore, 
which our 'travelled Hindu' will probably ask you, 
when he makes his appearance, will be that most annoy- 
ingly impertinent one which not a few Anglo-Indians 
are so used to put — ' Well, sir, what can I do for you ?' 
Should you disabuse his mind of any notion that may 
there exist of his being able to do anything for you, 
he will probably apologize, or at all events relax con- 
siderably ; and if you at all come up to his notion of 
a person fit to associate with, he will probably ask you 
to come into the drawing-room, and order the punkah 
and a cup of tea for you. Should you be * somebody,* 
there will also be the chance of an introduction to his 
wife, who, if she is not a * travelled ' lady herself, is one 
most strongly and unmistakably Anglicized. Sooner or 
later the conversation will turn upon England ; proba- 
bly every article of ornament in the room is a * direct 
importation' from 'that glorious, wonderful country;' 
and there may also 'hang tales,' neither few nor short, 



THE TEA VEILED HINDU. 327 

to each such momento. See how eloquent our travelled 
countryman will wax as he dilates on the * coundess 
benefits ' and * incalculable advantages ' that he believes 
will result from a visit to England; and mark how 
gravely he will put his hand on your shoulder as he 
closes with the words, ' My dear fellow, take my advice, 
and send your boy off to England as soon as you can 
possibly manage it. There 's nothing like it.' 

" If, however, you wish to see the travelled Hindu 
at his best, you must do so on the occasion that he 
entertains his European or ultra- Anglicized friends at 
his ' Lodge * (or whatever may be the absurdly English 
name he may give his dwellinghouse). See how com- 
placently and self-satisfiedly he bows and smiles, as he 
displays himself— most elaborately, and, we have no 
doubt, most uncomfortably dressed in a * swallow-tail,' 
white * choker,' and other component elements of what 
he will tell you, with a faint half-pitying smile at your 
own ignorance, is costume de rigueur for an evening par- 
ty ! We fear we put him out considerably when we told 
him that black, while a 'gentlemanly color' (if colors 
are to be chosen according to their descent), and well 
enough for a white man, looked simply horrid when 
worn by one of his complexion, as we did when we 
suggested, amiably enough, that he should do something 
to get rid of the holes in his ears which every Hindu has 
bored for him or her at an early age, and the tattooed 
mark on his forehead, since they scarcely were in 
keeping with the rest of his * would-be-Briton ' appear- 
ance. Well, as we talk, the guests begin to arrive* 



323 E VER Y-DA Y LIFE IN INDIA, 

They include a few typical Europeans, the family doctor, 
for it wont do for one who has been to England to be 
without an expensive attache of this kind to his estab- 
lishment, and an attorney, as much to have the profes- 
sions represented as out of courtesy to that particular 
profession, which by far the great majority of travelled 
Hindus in this presidency at least belong to. These, 
with a few travelled (or otherwise highly Anglicized) 
natives, are the persons whom you will meet; and 
it is a sight worth seeing, certainly 'as good as a 
play,' how our * travelled Hindu' friend will go to work 

* handing ' his lady guests out of their carriages, and 

* leading ' them within doors. Verily, would the ghost 
of our good old Manu shudder, could he but see a 
descendant of those for whom he framed his ' code ' thus 
aping, perhaps, the most incongruous and even to the 
popular native mind indecorous manners and customs of 
the mlecheha (foreigner), pollution from the worst contact 
with whom, according to the laws of Manu, could only 
be removed by cutting off so much of the body as had 
been touched by the unclean being! In due course, 
however, the several guests are ushered in ; and present- 
ly there will, most probably, be a division among them 
as to billiards or croquet ; for our ' travelled Hindu ' is 
an ' adept ' with the mallet, as well as the ' cue.* Ac- 
cording to English ideas, so at least we are obliged to 
suppose from what we see, it would seem that neither 
of these games can go on without certain stimulants 
unto the playing thereof in the shape of iced and intox- 
icating drinks. Hence, we find a table laid out in the 



THE TRAVELLED HINDU. 329 

veranda with such delicacies (?) as ham, sandwiches, 
and claret cups, side by side with cakes and confections 
of a more homely make, whose outlandish and unpro- 
nounceable names we will not inflict on the reader. 
One of the would-be-British ladies presides over another 
table, playing at making tea or coffee; and even, per- 
haps, indulging in a mild flirtation to complete the 
Englishism of the whole scene. We sorely wish space 
would allow of our recording a few dialogues from the 
conversation going on. They would make the very flesh 
creep of those Indophiles with whom a residence in 
England is looked upon as the only means for reform- 
ing the Hindu character and the Hindu people. In 
our humble opinion it is a reformation, indeed, and one 
with a vengeance ; but certainly far from being the kind 
of reformation that a patriot or a philanthropist would 
desire for his country. 

We are, however, digressing. From billiards, cro- 
quet, and the veranda tables, the step is but a short 
and easy one to the drawing-room, where the company 
will remain till dinner is formally announced by a 
Pariah butler. That announcement duly over, and 
the guests having paired off* dining-roomwards, let us 
take a brief and hurried glance at some of them as they 
are seated around the travelled Hindu's hospitable 
mahogany ! The host himself we have already de- 
scribed, at least we have described how he dresses. At 
his right is a young Englishwoman, the guest /«r excel- 
lence of the evening. She came out, we think, in the 
same steamer in which her present host returned to 



330 E VER Y-DA Y LIFE IN INDIA , 

India, to be engaged In educational work ; but she has 
given that up for a much snugger little berth, being en- 
gaged to be married to one of the Europeans to whom 
we have already alluded. Next to this lady's espoused 
husband, who, of course, sits by her, is a native lady 
of the ultra-Anglicized school, one, that is, who is a 
Hindu in nothing more than color and by the accident 
of birth. Of tolerably fair intelligence, and very credit- 
able Industry, she does not conceal that she is a bit of 
a blue-stocking, while it is a truth only too painfully 
self-evident that. In dress and manners, she runs pretty 
close on the heels of that much-abused female charac- 
ter in English society, the ' girl of the period.' Oppo- 
site her is her representative In the ruder sex, the ultra- 
Anglicized Hindu young gentleman. He is a raw 
young lad, yet In the lower regions of the college, but 
eagerly awaiting the time when he is to be shipped off 
to England to compete for an appointment in the Cov- 
enanted Civil Service. He too dresses, talks and gen- 
erally behaves as a young Englishman of his age, as 
do all the others of his class, with this Important excep- 
tion, that, whereas the Englishman does now and then 
give a thought to the masses around him, the travelled 
Hindu, and those of his countrymen with whom he 
associates, so far from thinking of, and feeling for, and 
trying to improve their less-favored brethren, do their 
very best by word and by deed to keep themselves as 
far aloof as possible from others, from what cause or 
with what profit we will not undertake to say. 

"We wish we could, with truth, have drawn a 



THE TRAVELLED HINDU. 331 

brighter picture, and have exhibited our travelled fellow- 
countryman in a light more favorable than that which 
we have just represented him in. We wish, we repeat, 
we had it in our power to say that by far the great 
majority of such natives of this Presidency as we know 
who have visited England were persons of known 
and acknowledged good principles ; and that, as much 
as in them lay, they were anxious to promote the 
good of their fellow-beings. Such, however, we con- 
fess, and we do so with the utmost regret, has not been 
our experience ; and it is because we have had so pain- 
ful an experience that we have been induced to write 
at such length, and with such severity as we have, 
regarding a character in Hindu society of the present 
day, against not one of the representatives whereof we 
have the slightest ill-feeling. Should, however, any of 
our travelled Hindus feel themselves aggrieved by 
what we have said of them, perhaps they will be kind 
enough to favor us with such particulars as may show 
wherein we have wronged them. Till some such vin- 
dication (if at all possible) is made, we fear we must 
hold that the travelled Hindu is an almost utterly 
useless element in Hindu society, and that it is any- 
thing but advisable to have the species largely increased, 
at all events for some time to come." 



37 



332 EVER Y-DA Y LIFE IN INDIA. 



XXXYI. on A- COAST STEAMER. 

It is seldom that one gets so favorable an opportu- 
tunity for studying native character, especially that of 
the higher classes, as on a coast steamer. Here they 
are like fish out of water. Everything is new to them 
and unlike anything to which they are accustomed in 
their homes. 

It was on a calm, beautiful June morning that I 
found myself, with about a score of high-caste natives, 
in a pinnace at the dock at Masulipatam, starting for 
the steamer which lay in the roads about seven miles 
distant. This same Masulipatam has the name of being 
one of the worst landing ports in the world, and with 
my experience in the matter I shall hold to this con- 
clusion until convinced to the contrary by competent, 
experienced judges. However, on this particular occa- 
sion, the sea was not remarkably rough and the wind 
was favorable. I have therefore no thrilling "landing 
experience " to relate in connection with this morning, 
such as I could relate in connection with other occa- 
sions, and such as many other persons who unfortu- 
nately have had to get off and on steamers at this port 
could relate. Being the only European in the boat, the 
master gave me a seat in the stern under a canvas awn- 
ing, where I made myself comfortable and kept very 
quiet. I had the whole company in view, and, nothing 
would have been easier for me than to enter into spirit- 



ON A COAST STEAMER, 333 

ed conversation with some of those near me, and attract 
the attention of all. This would have been agreeable to 
them too, for they felt awkward — it being the first sea- 
voyage for all except a few of them — and nothing would 
have delighted them more than some object upon which 
to bestow their attention. The delicacy of their situa- 
tion was increased by the fact that most of them were 
Brahmans, whose wives seldom appear in public, but 
who were now not only brought out into a promiscuous 
company, but were necessarily huddled into rather 
close quarters with people of lower castes and of no 
caste at all. Then, too, everybody knew that it was a 
thing of doubtful religious propriety for Brahmans to 
^ke a sea-voyage at all. 

All these thoughts flashed upon me in a moment 
after I had taken my seat in the boat, and I was deter- 
mined to say little, but see much. To see the more, I 
had, of course, to pretend to see nothing but the waves 
of the sea and the steamer lying in the distance, while 
it was also to my evident advantage not to appear to 
understand anything that might be said in Telugu. 
Though it was early in the morning, I noticed, some- 
what to my surprise, the large paint-marks on the fore- 
heads of my fellow-passengers, which are a sign that a 
full meal has been taken. Rather, I should say, the 
paint-marks are a sign of the devotion or worship which 
has taken place in connection with the meal. This was 
unusual, as Hindus do not generally take a full meal so 
early in the day, and consequently do not have these 
marks so fresh and large until about noon. 



334 EVERY-DA Y LIFE IN INDIA, 

My curiosity on this point was solved by a conversa- 
tion which I overheard between two Brahmans near me. 
They were rather old men, but neither had ever ven- 
tured on a sea- voyage before. With a nervous uneasi- 
ness I heard one of them say, " And what arrangements 
have you made about eating ?" " Well," replied the 
other, " we all ate as much as we could before starting, 
and we have brought along some cakes and fruit, so 
that we shall not need to cook anything on the ship. 
As we shall reach Madras to-morrow, we thought we 
might get along in this way. In this manner, too, they 
say we can take the journey without violating our 
(caste) laws." 

I was much impressed with this man's sincere re-, 
spect for his religious laws. Though as a Christian I 
might not believe in their necessity, I could not but 
admire his devotion to what he thought right in the 
sight of God. 

My attention was soon drawn from these sedate 
Brahman fathers to a young government official — also a 
Brahman, but one of the new school — who had evi- 
dently " travelled before." I have seen many railroad 
conductors and ship-captains in my time whose whole 
life had been one of travel, but among them I have 
never yet seen one who could rival this young Hindu 
in putting on an air of having travelled before, and of 
showing to those around him, in a patronizing way, the 
exquisite pleasure which his experience afforded him. 
This young man made several attempts to draw me 
into an English conversation, but soon gave it up as a 



ON A COAST STEAMER, 335 

fruitless undertaking. He spoke English fluently, and 
wore a coat. In so far he was Anglicized. He took 
snuff, chewed betel-leaf, wore the native head-cloth, 
loin-cloth, and sandals. In so far he adhered to the 
customs of his fathers. He is what we call a half- An- 
glicized Hindu, and that he is so not only outwardly, 
but inwardly also, is further corroborated by what he 
afterwards told me of his religious belief. 

We had gotten only a few miles away from the 
shore when we had another evidence, besides the paint- 
marks, of the full breakfasts which had been taken by 
our Brahman passengers. Alas, the gentle rocking of 
our boat and the breakfasts could not agree; so the 
latter went to feed the fishes, while their late owners 
presented a picture of utter desolation. The different 
views which the affected and the non-affected take of 
seasickness is one of the remarkable things of this 
world. While I really pitied these poor people — espe- 
cially the delicate Brahman women, to whom the expe- 
rience must have been very trying — this wicked humor 
in me was stirred up all the more as I thought of the 
full early meal which had been so religiously stored 
away, in the hope that it might do good service for the 
greater part of two days. 

Natives, as a rule, travel as "deck passengers." 
This is convenient for them in many ways. It is very 
cheap, and affords them nearly all the personal com- 
forts they have at home. Or to put it another way : as 
they do not need chairs, tables, beds, etc., even in their 
homes, they are not put to inconvenience by the want 



33^ E VER Y'DA Y LIFE IN INDIA, 

of them as deck passengers. They bring along a few 
eatables and drinking water sufficient to last them for a 
few days, if the voyage be a short one ; and if it be a 
long one, they provide their own cook and make some 
arrangement with the steward for the use of a fireplace, 
etc. In no case will caste people touch either the food 
or the water provided by the ship. 

Our half- Anglicized Hindu was true to the name we 
have given him even in his treatment of the ship's ac- 
commodation. He took a cabin, but boarded himself. 
I was thus soon thrown into further contact with him, 
and as he was inclined to be talkative, we soon became 
well acquainted, and before the day was over I knew 
where he was born, in what schools he was educated, 
what had been his employment since he left school, 
what Europeans were his personal acquaintances, what 
was his present business, his salary, and his prospects 
for promotion in the future. 

My readers must not suppose that I had any very 
great trouble to get all this information, or that it was 
anything unusual for me to get it so speedily. The 
subjects named above, and kindred ones, form the sta- 
ple of conversation between Europeans and natives of 
this class. While they would not think it proper to 
ask such questions of you, they are quite ready to give 
you their own history, and will generally do it even un- 
asked, if you will only listen. 

This young man had been educated in a mission 
school, and spoke with great respect of his former 
teachers, of the Bible, and of Christianity. He said 



: ON A COAST STEAMER, 337 

caste rules were nonsense, and Hinduism a corrupt sys- 
tem of religion ; that there was only one God, and he 
a Spirit, etc. 

" Then how is it," said I, "that you still make those 
huge paint-marks on your forehead, and refuse to eat 
with us here on the steamer?" To this he replied what 
many others of his class have said to me under similar 
circumstances : " We must do these things as matters 
of expediency, to preserve the peace of our families 
and the good-will of our relatives." 

Of course you can then make your best speech on 
duty, moral courage, and reform, but it does not follow 
that you will convince your hearer. 

I must tell you something more about our steamer 
and its general appearance. The Indian coast steamers 
are all fine, large, English -built vessels, and belong to 
an immensely rich company, called the "B. I. S. N.," 
or, in full, " British-India Steam Navigation Company." 
This corporation has been largely patronized by the 
'government, having a contract to carry all government 
supplies and the mails between Indian ports. Having 
also so far a monopoly of the passenger travel along 
the coast, the rates are exorbitantly high, and it will be 
a great convenience to the travelling public if, as rumor 
says will be the case, a competition line of steamers be 
put on the Indian seas. 

The passengers and crew of one of these steamers 
are an interesting ethnological study. The officers are 
probably English, Irish, or Scotch ; and whichever they 
are, they are strongly, for it seems seamen preserve their 



338 E VER Y'DA Y LIFE IN INDIA, 

nationality better than most other classes of travellers. 
The common sailors are generally a motley crowd of 
Mohammedans, Bengalis, Malaysians, with a Chinese 
carpenter, while the servants are probably Madrasees. 
Among the deck passengers, but having food supplied 
by the steward, may probably be found a number of 
Eurasians with ill-fitting clothing, pinched faces, and a 
general appearance of want and thriftlessness, which 
here as elsewhere make them special objects of pity. 

The many boxes, packages, and bundles which it is 
necessary for the native passengers to carry, give the 
deck the appearance of an emigrant ship; but when 
you remember that these are Hindus — who would 
rather die than emigrate — you may be assured that 
appearances are deceitful, and that the next port will 
probably find all these and their owners gone, having 
reached terra firma again, and having performed a feat 
in the way of voyaging, which to many of them is one 
of the great experiences of a lifetime. 



THE FAMINE OF 1S77-78. 339 



XXXYII. THE FAMIHE OF 1877-78. 

The cause of the late terrible famine in Southern 
India was, in short, drought — the failure of the periodi- 
cal rains in 1875 partially, in 1876 almost totally, and in 
1877 again partially. 

With this main cause must be coupled two minor 
causes: first, the improvidence of the masses, which 
makes them content with sufficient for the day; and 
secondly, the fact that the millions of India live almost 
wholly on grain. 

In regard to the first of these minor causes we may 
say that the unconcern for the morrow which the average 
Hindu manifests is simply incomprehensible to us 
Saxons. It makes us nervous even to imagine our- 
selves in his condition, while he sees no cause for alarm. 
The parents say, when reasoned with, " Our children 
will take care of us when we are old," and as for the 
children, they quite acquiesce in this custom. I shall 
never forget the look of mingled incredulity and aston- 
ishment which came over his face, when I once incident- 
/ally mentioned to a low-caste man that in America, as 
a rule, parents assisted their children in getting a start 
in business, and even gave them property at their death. 
It is this almost universal Improvidence on the part of 
the lower castes which greatly helped to bring on 
the famine. 

38 



340 E VER Y-DA Y LIFE IN INDIA . 

The second minor cause mentioned is also of more 
importance than might at first appear. 

The Brahmans are rehgiously forbidden to eat meat, 
eggs or anything that has or has had animal life in it. 
The next great class, the Sudras, eat fowls and mutton, 
but no beef. They also consider the cow a sacred 
animal and shrink from eating its meat. The lower 
castes eat all sorts of meat when they can get it, but on 
account of their poverty they seldom get any except 
such as has " died of itself" As a consequence of this 
state of affairs the country is full of cattle — and before 
the famine was yet more so. The bullocks are used as 
beasts of burden, and the cows for the milk and ghee 
which they yield. This may work tolerably well in 
ordinary times but even then the large herds are often 
a great strain on the produce of the village. In times 
of great scarcity of grain and grass, prudence would 
suggest the slaughter of some of the cattle for food. 
This would give relief in two ways — both by furnishing 
provision for man and by saving the grain which is 
required to keep the cattle alive. Such a thing was, 
however, not to be thought of, and the farmer and his 
herds drifted together to the verge of starvation. If the 
cattle were then abandoned, they were of but little use 
even to the Pariahs. 

The first unfortunate circumstance in connection 
with a great drought in India is the loss of the usual 
employment of the farm coolies. These depend to a 
great extent upon the grain which they earn from day 
to day in the fields. When the crops fail, this employ- 



THE FAMINE OF 1877-7^- 341 

ment falls, while at the same time the price of grain 
rises. During 1877 the price of grain rose to four times 
the old rates, while the fields refused to furnish even 
sufficient for their owners. 

The farm laborers were, therefore, the first to feel 
the distress severely ; but as the second year passed by 
without rain, the distress extended upwards, and the 
poorer farmers had to sell their cattle, their farming 
utensils, and even their fields. The poorer Brahmans, 
who are religiously forbidden to work with their hands, 
had to resort to begging — to which employment, how- 
ever, they turn very readily. 

The farm laborers and poorer farmers having sold 
their all, began to wander, singly or in companies, 
northward in search of*work and food. At this junc- 
ture the government came to their assistance by estab- 
lishing " Relief Works" on a large scale, where people 
could earn their daily food. These works consisted 
chiefly of making new roads and digging canals and 
tanks. The labor was simple, but very hard for those 
who had never been used to this kind of work. The 
people took to it very reluctantly, partly because of the 
nature of the work, and pardy because they feared the 
diseases, such as cholera and smallpox, which were 
generally prevalent among the coolies. 

Still, great numbers had to resort to these works as 
the only means of subsistence, and in September, 1877, 
the number thus employed in the Madras Presidency 
alone was nearly a million. 

Besides these there remained a large class of utterly 



342 E VER Y-DA Y LIFE IN INDIA, 

helpless people, consisting of the very old, little children 
and the sick, who had to be provided for in other ways. 
For. these government relief camps were established at 
various points, where they were fed gratuitously. Many 
who were debiHtated by starvation were admitted tem- 
porarily, and sent away to the "Works" as soon as 
they had gained sufficient strength to handle a pick or 
carry a basket of earth. During the same month, that 
is September, 1877, while government was superintend- 
ing a million coolies on the Relief Works, it was also 
feeding gratuitously in these relief camps a million and 
a half helpless men, women, and children. At this time 
the work of private famine relief received a new impetus 
through what was known as the Mansion House 
Famine Relief Fund.* 

Sometime in July a large meeting, at which the 
Governor presided, had been held in Madras, when it 
was resolved to draw up an appeal for private help and 
telegraph it to England. This was accordingly done, 
and the contributions which came in response to this 
appeal exceeded by far the expectations of the Com- 
mittee. We may safely say, too, that they exceeded 
anything else on record for prompt and hearty charity. 
Nearly seven hundred thousand pounds sterling came 
from Great Britain alone, while the colonies added yet 
another hundred thousand making the entire fund about 
;^8oo,ooo. 

* So called because the headquarters for collections were 
at the London Mansion House under the patronage of the 
Mayor of London. 



THE FAMINE OF 1877-78. 343 

As this fund was to be kept separate, and distributed 
independently of the government aid, there was naturally 
some difficulty in finding the most suitable channels for 
its distribution. Europeans in India are comparatively 
few in number, and natives to whom it would be thought 
prudent to intrust large sums of money for distribution 
under such circumstances are equally few in number. 

However, a general committee was formed in Madras, 
and local sub-committees, composed of Europeans and 
native gentlemen, were formed in all the principal towns 
of the famine district. The general committee received 
all the contributions and distributed them among the 
various sub-committees. Much freedom of action had 
to be allowed to the latter, as rules framed for one sec- 
tion might not be suitable for another. One main 
object of the private relief was to reach such cases as 
were needy, but could not be reached by the govern- 
ment relief The children were especially recommended 
to this charity, for, be it observed, however unnatural it 
may seem in our eyes, the children were the first to 
suffer. Strong, healthy fathers and mothers starved 
their children to elicit aid for themselves, and it was no 
uncommon sight to see a well-fed man or woman, or 
wretch, as we ought to call such a creature, with one or 
two children starved to skeletons. 

To the relief of the children and the sick, to distri- 
buting clothing, to giving road expenses to " wanderers" 
returning to their homes, to the repairing of houses 
which had been pulled down and sold for food, to buy- 
ing back looms, farming utensils, and other working 



344 E VER Y'DA Y LIFE IN INDIA . 

tools which had been pawned for a few rupees, to sup- 
plying destitute farmers with seed-grain and in some 
cases with labor to sow their fields after the rains came, 
to these and similar modes of relief the Mansion House 
Fund was to a great extent applied. 

As the missionaries of the various societies were 
scattered, more than any other Europeans, throughout 
the country, they were among the most prominent 
members of the various sub-committees. 

" Day-nurseries" is the name which was generally 
given to the feeding arrangements for the children. I 
say "feeding arrangements," because this expresses 
more clearly the thing which was actually done. There 
was but little of the nursery idea about it. 

It was my privilege and pleasure to superintend for 
a while the feeding ol about five hundred children in 
seven different villages. The way it was done is this : 
In a village where there were, say sixty destitute chil- 
dren, we supplied daily about thirty pounds of rice and 
a pound of salt. The rice was boiled in two or three 
large earthen vessels with a good supply of water. 
Having been salted and well stirred it was distributed 
among the children, who sat in a row, each behind his 
Httle earthen dish. Each child received about a quart 
of the mixture — congee^ and this was considered suffi- 
cient to sustain life and strength for one day. It was 
plain fare, it is true, but it was a good deal better than 
nothing, and the children were exceedingly glad to 
get it. 

The cost, notwithstanding the high price of the rice, 



THE FAMINE OF iZ-Jl-lZ. 345 

was very small. Thirty pounds of rice — the kind we 
used — at famine rates cost about two rupees or one 
dollar. The cook's wages and the firewood cost four 
annas or twelve cents. This leaves us yet a margin of 
eight cents for the salt to make our bill one dollar and 
twenty cents, or two cents for each child for one day's 
subsistence. One naturally asks, how then could there 
be a famine when a child could get a meal for two 
cents ? We answer, just for want of these two cents a 
day, hundreds and thousands of children wasted away 
and are no more. It is because people can be fed in 
India at a comparatively small cost that it was at all 
possible to grapple with the famine by means of money. 

The cost of the government for feeding a famine 
pauper was probably not more than four or five cents a 
day on an average, and yet the famine cost the Imperial 
treasury about ;^ 11,000,000. What then would it have 
cost if prices of food had been the same here as in 
Europe or America ? 

The greatest praise is due to the British government 
for the heroic manner in which it grappled with this 
famine. From the Viceroy down to the humblest 
Public Works overseer, every official seemed to feel 
the responsibility of the situation, and did all in his 
power to save the lives and to relieve the sufferings of 
the destitute. Their task was a difficult one and in 
many cases a thankless one, but they performed their 
duty with a devotion worthy of all praise. To meet the 
demand for officials in Southern India, all furlough, 
except on medical grounds, was suspended, officers on 



34^ E VER Y'DA V LIFE IN INDIA. 

leave were recalled, and a great number of men were 
sent to Madras from Bengal. Contagious disease, ex- 
posure to the sun, and overwork struck down many of 
these faithful officers, and they found untimely graves 
in the land whither they had gone to save the lives of 
others. 

THE FOOD SUPPLY. 

At one time it was feared that the supply of grain 
could not be kept up. At a low estimate, ten millions 
of people had to be fed on imported grain. This grain, 
at the rate of 3,500 tons a day, was landed principally 
at the port of Madras by sailing-vessels and steamers 
bringing it from Burmah and Bengal. The lines of 
railroad extending from Madras into the interior were 
taxed to their utmost in carrying this grain. The prov- 
ince of Mysore alone required a thousand tons daily. 

Locomotives were brought from Northern India, 
extra grain-trains were run day and night, passenger- 
trains were discontinued, and even the telegraph de- 
partment was so overworked by the grain-traffic, that 
private messages, except such as related to famine re- 
lief, were for a while refused at the Madras offices. 

Notwithstanding all these effi)rts to relieve the dis- 
tress, the number of deaths by the famine was enor- 
mous. The number has been variously estimated at 
from two to five millions. In March, 1878, by order of 
government, a census was taken in several portions of 
the Madras Presidency, with a view to ascertaining the 
loss. Three sections were selected : one a severe fam- 
ine district, one a mild famine district, and the other a 



THE FAMINE OF 1^77-7^- 



347 



no-famlne district. The result showed a loss of nearly 
25 per cent. In the severe district. 

The following table shows very clearly the effect of 
the famine in reducing the population In a few of the 
worst districts. 

COMPARATIVE STATEMENT OF DEATHS AND 
BIRTHS. 



Districta. 


Total popula- 
tion. 


Average of 

leaths before 

1876. 


In 1877. 


Increase of 
deatlis. 


Decrease of 
births. 


South Arcot - - 

Bellary -- 

Salem 


1,755,817 
1,668,006 
1,966,995 


2,498 
3,207 

3437 


10,462 
15,148 
16,515 


7,564 
11,941 
13,078 


743 
1,744 
2,580 



The sad effects of the famine are still to be seen In 
many places, not only In the half-ruined, desolate con- 
dition of villages, but also In the demoralization of the 
people. Many able-bodied men and women, who be- 
fore the famine lived by honest industry, were driven to 
beggary and theft, and having fallen Into this demoral- 
ized state, they seem either unable or unwilling to re- 
sort to their former honest livelihood. 

The prison system was an ill-suited punishment for 
petty offences during the famine. It worked the wrong 
way. The prisoners were the best fed poor people in 
the country, and the jails were filled to overflowing. 
The Guntoor jail, for Instance, with ordinary accommo- 
dations for 120 prisoners, had at one time no less than 
500! 

I experienced in a very practical way the sentiment 
of the poor people on this subject of prison punishment. 
Having advanced some money to a number of poor 
39 



348 EVERY-DA V LIFE IN INDIA, . 

weavers, in order that they might buy thread and weave 
cloths to sell again, and thus find employment, I was 
not a little annoyed by their non-appearance at the 
promised time. They were to bring the cloths to me, 
and I was to assist them in finding sale, taking back at 
the same time the money I had advanced to them. I 
sent for them again and again, but every time they sent 
me an evasive answer. At last I threatened to send 
them to jail for breach of trust in case they did not ap- 
pear at once. To this they sent me the cool reply, 
" We are very sorry, sir, but we have eaten up all the 
money you gave us, and we have made no cloths. We 
are in a starving condition, and if you will only send us 
to jail we shall get something to eat." 

Much theorizing has been going on, both here and 
in England, as to the causes of famines in India and the 
best modes of preventing them. The government, hav- 
ing apparently come to the conclusion that famines are 
to be a permanent institution in India, has appointed a 
" Famine Commission," and has set apart a portion of 
the revenue as a " Famine Insurance Fund." 

One healthy sign is that while formerly people were 
content to regard famines as indications of God's wrath 
and displeasure, they are now beginning to consider 
them as indications of man's laziness and improvidence. 
To the new theology we give our preference, and we 
feel very confident that when India awakes to a sense 
of her duty and her privileges as one of the great na- 
tions of the earth, when that life-destroying tyrant, Caste, 
shall so far let go his hold that the sons and daughters 



THE FAMINE OF iZti-^^. 349 

of India may cheerfully and honorably go forth to all 
kinds of honest industry, and may stimulate one an- 
other not only in passing examinations in meaningless 
text-books, but also in the arts of tilling the soil and of 
manufacturing the various articles of consumption for 
which she now sends millions of her money to Europe — 
then, and not till then, will famines cease. 

India will become richer, not by sending away her sur- 
plus population, as some have proposed, and much less 
by sending away her money, as is now being done on 
an enormous scale, but by so developing her national 
resources that her poor may find constant employment ; 
and we cannot but think that half the money spent on 
famines would do infinitely more good if spent by the 
British government in encouraging agriculture and 
manufactures within the bounds of the Indian empire. 



350 E VER Y-DA Y LIFE IN INDIA . 



XXXYIII. MISSIOHARY EFFORT. 

Missionary operations in India are a reality, and 
in a comprehensive view of the country these claim a 
share of our attention. 

To discuss the subject we have no need to indulge 
in cant, sentimentality, or prophecy. The past we 
know as history, the present we see as a fact, and the 
future we leave to God. It is something to the credit 
of the cause of missions that this point has been reached, 
and that whatever else skeptics may do or say, they can 
no longer relegate missionary operations and their re- 
sults to the visionary dreams of adventurers and enthu- 
siasts. 

There is in India a native Christian church scattered 
throughout the cities, towns, and villages, from the Him- 
alayas to Cape Comorin — a church which has not only 
numbers, but also influence, power, and all the elements 
of growth and self-propagation. We do not say that 
she has these desirable qualities in as great a measure 
as we could desire, but she has them in a certain degree 
and to such an extent that, humanly speaking, even 
without foreign men and money she would be able to 
live and prosper. The number of foreign missionaries — 
European and American — laboring in India, Ceylon, 
and Burmah, is estimated at six hundred. Native la- 
borers, ordained and unordained, are counted by thou- 



MISSIONARY EFFORT. 353 

sands, while the number of baptized Protestant Chris- 
tians Is reckoned at 500,000. 

In the TInnevelly missions, which are the oldest 
and strongest, the number of foreign laborers has been 
greatly reduced ot late, and their places have been as- 
sumed by a native ministry. Foreign aid Is also being 
gradually withdrawn ; and in accordance with a fixed 
scale of reduction, the stronger missions are to be thrown 
entirely upon their own support within twenty years. 
While there are but few missions In India sufficiently 
advanced for such a step, it Is what all are looking for- 
ward to, and the fact that in some It Is being success- 
fully carried out gives hopeful promise to all. 

To throw the missions suddenly and without proper 
precautions upon their own responsibility, would be to 
endanger the best results of long and weary labor ; nor 
has the Christian church in Europe and America any 
need or desire to do so. 

THE FORMS 
of effort employed in missionary work are various, but 
they all converge to the same point — the proclamation 
of the gospel of Christ. 

To this end the missionary engaged In direct evan- 
gelistic work travels from village to village, and while 
preaching the gospel cultivates the friendship of the 
people by making himself useful to them In all honor- 
able ways. He gives them medical advice and medi- 
cine, directs them, when appropriate. In matters of law, 
suggests to them improvements in agriculture and the 



354 ^ y^R y-DA Y LIFE IN INDIA. 

mechanical arts, and not unfrequently becomes a peace- 
maker in local and domestic quarrels. 

In cases of oppression he intercedes for the op- 
pressed, and in times of distress he is the first to devise 
means of relief. 

The missionary engaged in educational work, that 
he may have the golden opportunity of implanting gos- 
pel truths in young and tender hearts before the pomp 
of idolatry and the cares of life shall have forestalled 
him, is willing to devote many hours and days — ay, 
even nights — to the drudgery of schoolroom work, in a 
climate where such work is especially wearisome to 
body and mind. 

That the early impressions may not be effaced, he 
follows his pupils with letters, prayers, and counsel, 
after they exchange the school for the duties of active 
life. 

For this same end the lady zenana -laborers go 
forth through heat and dust into the filthy streets and 
dingy huts, carrying in one hand the Bible and in the 
other a primer, a package of needles and thread, a 
picture, a piece of embroidery, or some other article of 
comfort or adornment which suggests at the same time 
the difference between a Christian home and a Hindu 
house. 

In the prosecution of this same work — the procla- 
mation of the gospel — will the medical missionary give 
his time and skill and energy to the sick of all ranks, 
castes, and creeds. That he may show them the life, 
as well as the creed of the gospel, he shrinks not from 



MISSIONARY EFFORT. 355 

the most loathsome leper or the filthiest beggar who 
may need his care. 

Such are the character and the variety of effort put 
forth by the Christian church for the spread of the gos- 
pel in India. They are legitimate. They are Scriptu- 
ral. They are appreciated by the people, and they are 
blessed of God. 

RESULTS. 

Some of the grandest results of missionary effort in 
India cannot be put into figures and set up in statistical 
tables. It is a glorious triumph for the cause to have 
secured a visible Christian church, with hundreds of 
thousands of upright members ; to have a respectable 
and respected native ministry, raised up for the most 
part from the lowest grades of society ; to have a grow- 
ing Christian literature for young and old; to have 
churches and schools in every section of the country : 
but it is scarcely a less glorious triumph to influence for 
good in indirect ways the whole Hindu nation, and the 
British government itself, as Christian effort has done 
and is doing to-day. 

In summing up the results of missionary work in 
India, it is not inappropriate to call attention first to the 
changed attitude of the government of the country to- 
wards this enterprise. It was only through the indefat- 
igable perseverance of missionaries and the friends of 
missions, in Europe and America, that the presence of 
missionaries was at all tolerated in India less than a 
hundred years ago / 



356, E VER Y-DA Y LIFE IN INDIA, 

Those who are at all acquainted with the history of 
missions will remember the almost insuperable obstacles 
thrown in the way of the first Indian missionaries — how 
they were even interdicted from leaving the shores of 
England, as if they were spies or outlawed criminals ; 
how they had to find their way to Holland or America, 
and thence be smuggled into India as if they were con- 
traband goods; how Carey and his fellow-laborers, 
after arriving at Calcutta, were not allowed to remain 
on British soil, but had to find refuge in a Danish set- 
tlement ; how the early American missionaries, Judson, 
Newell, and others, were driven hither and thither, wor- 
ried and shunned in turn, as if they were dangerous 
wild beasts. By whom ? By the British government 
of India ! Those were indeed dark days. Those were 
the days when the nominally Christian rulers of India 
openly encouraged idolatry for the sake of gain, when 
the great Hindu temples, the festivals, and pilgrimages 
were made a source of revenue for the state ; when regi- 
ments of British soldiers, with their splendid equipage, 
were called out to give eclat to idolatrous festivities. 
Those days are past, and the Britons who represent their 
gracious Queen in India to-day are heartily ashamed of 
them. Brighter days have come. Missions, missiona- 
ries, and the native Christian church are now recog-. 
nized and honored by the government; educational 
grants are made to mission schools all over the coun- 
try ; the government and missionary societies join 
hands in the erection of school buildings, which are 
solely under mission control. When any important 



MISSIONARY EFFORT, 357 

changes in educational matters are contemplated, mis- 
sionaries are consulted, and their advice is not unheed- 
ed; when any consensus of opinion upon important 
matters of general interest is desired, missionary so- 
cieties are certain to be favored with the documents of 
government. 

The change in the attitude of the natives themselves 
is scarcely less marked. Personal violence to mission- 
aries and native Christians is seldom heard of; native 
officials pay the highest respect to the missionaries, and 
are glad to number them among their personal friends ; 
the mission schools throughout the land are crowded, 
and importunate applications for more have to be re- 
fused. These schools are opened with, religious exer- 
cises, the Bible is studied in them, all castes are admit- 
ted upon an equality, and freely associate with one an- 
other. Shade of Manu ! Horrible defilement ! 

Reasonable notions of God are becoming prevalent. 

In remote villages the missionary still finds those 
who believe in many gods, and the absurd fables con- 
cerning them with which the priests formerly delighted 
their rude audiences. In more accessible places, where 
the mission preacher's voice has been frequently heard, 
and where mission schools have exerted their enlighten- 
ing influence, intelligent ideas of God and of our rela- 
tion to him prevail even among non -Christians. 

Improved theological and moral ideas, due to the 
presence of Christian teachers, are gradually saturating 
the whole nation, even without their knowing or admit- 
ting the source. 

40 



358 E VERY-DA Y LIFE IN INDIA, 

The true character of Hindu priests is revealed. 
There is great variety among what may be called Hindu 
priests. There are some among them of whom we 
ought to think and speak charitably — men of devout 
minds, who have a desire to rise nearer to God and to 
direct others in spiritual things. These are worthy of 
honor and sympathy. Unfortunately they are the ex- 
ceptional few. The majority of so-called Hindu priests 
are filthy, useless, lying beggars, whose highest aspi- 
ration centres on their daily rice, and who are ever 
ready to resort to the foulest devices to secure their 
end. 

The character of such "teachers" is strikingly 
brought to light by comparison with the conduct of 
Christian missionaries and their native helpers, whose 
every effort is for the temporal and eternal welfare of 
the people. Hindus are quick to see this difference, 
and in the Telugu country two sayings in regard to 
Hindu priests are common : " Ours are not," say they, 
" mela (good), but mila (dirty) priests." Again, " Ours 
are not boda (preaching), but bada (troubling) priests." 
The play upon the words in the vernacular is very amu- 
sing as well as striking, and the proverbs indicate the 
sentiment of the people. 

Indifference to Hinduism and decay of Brahman- 
ical influence is another indirect result of missionary 
effort. 

" What do you think by this time of caste ?" we 
have often said to intelligent, friendly Hindus, and as 
often have received the reply, "It is doomed and must 



MISSIONARY EFFORT. 359 

go." This is the general impression among thoughtful 
natives. Some go so far as to ridicule and denounce 
it, together with the whole system of Hinduism of which 
it is a vital part. "But," say they, "we are so situated 
that we cannot singly break loose and face the conse- 
quences. We must wait for a gradual dissolution." 

The temples everywhere are crumbling to pieces. 
New ones are seldom built, and never by the united 
efforts of the people. The great festivals are less nu- 
merously attended. Idols are regarded not, as formerly, 
with devout veneration and unmingled awe, but with a 
suspicious superstition which must soon give way to 
contempt and indifference. 

The priests, ever ready to accommodate themselves 
to passing events, say that this is the "iron age," in 
which we must expect such sinful degeneracy in regard 
to religion, and that, moreover, the decay of caste is 
foretold in their sacred books, and that — in thirty years 
we have heard some say— caste distinctions are to be 
utterly abolished. Of this there is no doubt, that Brah- 
manical influence is fast losing its mysterious hold upon 
the people. 

There are yet other salutary effects traceable to the 
influence of missionary effort, among which is the ame- 
lioration of the condition of the poor out-castes. 

For no other reason than because the higher castes 
scornfully reject the efforts of the missionary in their 
behalf, are the lower castes reaping the first great bene- 
fits of the gospel. That they are reaping such a benefit, 
no one who is at all conversant with the facts can deny. 



36o E VER Y-DA Y LIFE IN INDIA, 

The last " Census Report of the Madras Government," 
an official document, referring to the condition of the 
poorer classes on the Malabar coast, says : 

" Slavery is now illegal in British India, but nevertheless a 
large part of the population of the lower castes is in a state 
infinitely worse. These miserable people are agricultural 
laborers, and the tyranny of their Hindu landlords is bound- 
less. Nor is this all ; the mere approach of the poor wretches 
involves ceremonial pollution to their masters, and men and 
women are also forced to go almost naked. Their only hope 
is in the Mohammedans or Christians, who can give them a 
religion worthy of the name, and also remove their reproach 
of caste ; but this their masters will not allow. Their gross 
fetishism is encouraged ; but if they turn to a purer faith, they 
are ejected at once from their plots of barren ground, which 
are their chief means of subsistence." Vol. I., page 172. 

Notwithstanding the opposition of the higher castes, 
many of the poor " slave-castes " in Malabar and other 
portions of India have embraced Christianity, and in 
doing so have broken away to a great extent from their 
bondage to the higher castes. 

New hopes, new desires, a new life has taken hold 
of these long-despised and sorely -oppressed people. 
For the first time for thousands of years they have in 
the missionary a friend who will listen to their story of 
wrongs, show them how to obtain redress, and point 
them to manly and upright courses of conduct. Un- 
less these classes have such a friend, all the laws which 
the most benign government can frame for their relief 
will do them no good. The missionaries' influence in 
this respect is of course greatest among the native 
Christians, but it is not confined to them. The news 



MISSIONARY EFFORT. 361 

that a certain low-caste community refuses to work 
without wages, objects to being beaten at the pleasure 
of its high-caste neighbors, demands a proper remune- 
ration for eggs, fowls, and other property, taken from it 
to supply passing travellers or petty government offi- 
cials, and hesitates to pay the ever-recurring presents 
to village authorities and policemen — this news spreads 
quickly and is contagious in its influence. " What oth- 
ers of our caste-fellows are doing and enjoying, we also 
can do and enjoy," is the verdict of those to whom the 
news comes, and from that day their yoke sits heavily 
upon them. 

As the oppressed thus rise to a consciousness of 
their manhood they ask for yet more light, and the 
desire for education in many parts of India is to-day 
greater among the Pariahs than among the Sudras. In 
the out-caste portion of many a village may be heard 
the hum of children learning their letters and the 
echoes of merry school-children, while the " village 
proper" is content to remain in ignorance. 

Nor does this desire to read, which has taken so 
strong a hold upon the castes from which the native 
Christians have chiefly come, spend its force within 
them. It powerfully affects the higher castes also. It 
has a reflex influence upon them, and out of very self- 
defence, if they wish to protect their standing and re- 
spectability, they must educate. 

With education, even if it be only of a very elemen- 
tary character, comes light and a capability of appre- 
ciating more light. 



362 E VER Y'DA Y LIFE IN INDIA. 

Thus these low-caste Christian communities act as a 
lever for influencing the whole nation. 

The value of missionary effort in this and similar 
directions is not easily put into statistical form, while it 
may be conveniently overlooked by such as are inclined 
to put a low estimate upon its results. 



THE PROSPECT, 365 



XXXIX. THE PROSPECT. 

However interesting to the student of history may. 
be the weird past of India, to the observer of current 
events the wonderful changes going on at present in 
that great country, and its probable future, are matters 
of still greater interest. 

The probable political future of India is now and 
has been for years an absorbing topic of discussion 
among European statesmen. In the religious future of 
India America has a more direct interest. Considering 
the influence which the religion of a people has upon its 
national development, we regard the religious future of 
India as of more vital interest to the world at large than 
any prospective political changes can possibly be. For 
the last half century the Christian churches of Europe 
and America have, with scarcely an exception, taken a 
deep interest in the spread of the gospel in India. 
Although this is a very short period in which to look 
for great religious changes among a people so conser- 
vative as the Hindus, yet 

" Watchman, tell us of the night 
What its signs of promise are," 

is a reasonable inquiry for the church to make. We 
have elsewhere referred to the indirect changes which 
are being produced in India through the influence of 
the gospel. In order to appreciate the progress which 



364 E VER Y-DA Y LIFE IN INDIA. 

has really been made, we must understand, better than 
we fear the church at home generally does, the nature 
of the warfare which the Christian church wages in 
India. 

The church in Europe and America has always 
been lavish of sympathy with and for her foreign mis- 
sionaries. We regret to say that much of this sympathy 
has been misdirected. The real obstacles and dis- 
couragements being often unknown, missionaries have 
been pitied and commiserated for things unworthy of 
their manliness and the cause which they represent. 

Our friends have supposed that because we live in a 
country where we cannot get as good bread and butter 
as they can at home, where we have to go about the 
country in ox-carts instead of travelling in Pullman 
Palace-cars, and because we live in a land famous for 
tigers, cobras, lizards, and scorpions, we must be very 
uncomfortable, and must be continually longing to get 
home. I assure my readers that so far as I have known 
the foreign missionaries in India they are not such babes 
that they must be confined to any particular kind of 
delicate food ; they are not such hothouse plants that 
they cannot endure a little physical hardship, and they 
are generally men and women of sufficient good judg- 
ment to keep out of the way of wild beasts and danger- 
ous reptiles. More than that, I take the liberty of 
saying in their behalf that they do not thank you for 
sentimentality of this kind. You insult their manliness 
when you intimate that they care for these things, or 
that they had not better counted the cost of their 



THE PROSPECT. 365 

undertaking. Our difficulties and discouragements are 
of a very different nature ; and in order that the church 
at home may have an intelligent interest in the work, 
they ought to be better understood. 

As missionaries, we go to India with hearts full of 
love and zeal. We go there with a message — glad 
tidings of great joy for all the people — and we naturally 
expect a response from them somewhat commensurate 
with our interest in them. In this we are disappointed, 
though we ought to have foreseen its improbability. 

In the first place, they are self-righteous and satisfied. 
They do not want a new and purer religion. " Chris- 
tianity," they say, " may be just the thing for you white 
people of Europe and America, but as for us we have 
our own religion and we do not want any other. This 
was good enough for our renowned ancestors, and it is 
certainly good enough for us." 

They are suspicious of our motives. Hinduism is 
selfish — utterly selfish. Unmitigated selfishness is one 
of the dark stains on the character of the Hindus, and 
they cannot give us credit for unselfishness in our efforts 
for the spread of the gospel among them. They talk 
over the matter among themselves, and say, " How 
much do these missionaries get for each convert?" 
Then they speculate on the subject and decide among 
themselves that for each high-caste convert we must get 
a good price — say a hundred rupees — while for a low- 
caste one we get only two or three rupees. Our school- 
boys sometimes in good faith ask us how much we get 
for a convert. It may not be difficult to explain such 
41 



366 E VER Y'DA V LIFE IN INDIA. 

matters satisfactorily so far as we have an opportunity 
of doing so, but to dislodge such suspicions from the 
minds of thousands and milHons of people is neither an 
easy nor a speedy task. 

They are indifferent as to the future. The theory 
of the transmigration of souls — which is a vital part of 
the Hindu religion — is not calculated to inspire either 
hope of reward or fear of punishment to a very great 
degree. It leads rather to indifference. What is not 
attained in one birth may be made up in another 
throughout the successive generations. We do not say 
that the mass of the people understand the theory of 
metempsychosis, or that they are even able to account 
for their indifference with regard to the future ; but the 
whole nation has nevertheless been influenced by it and 
the Christian teacher finds the pernicious effects of the 
doctrine a very great obstacle to his efforts to arouse 
the people to a sense of their relation to a future life. 

They are not impressed with a sense of guilt. This 
too may be ascribed largely to their pernicious system 
of belief. Their pantheistic philosophy has washed 
away the very foundations upon which the Christian 
teacher comes to build. Pantheism, by making every- 
thing God, including even man himself, who according 
to the Hindu theory is finally to be absorbed again in 
the great being Brahm — must necessarily annihilate the 
distinction between a personal God and a personal self ; 
and in doing so it must destroy also the sense of per- 
sonal responsibility. How can we be accountable to a 
being of whom we are a part? A Hindu ordinarily 



THE PROSPECT. 367 

talks very reverently about God. He says, " By God's 
blessing I am well to-day;" " If it be God's will I shall 
come to-morrow;" and the new missionary, as he 
observes this reverence of speech and sees the multi- 
form outward religious ceremonies which enter into a 
Hindu's daily life, almost feels as if he had mistaken his 
calling in coming hither to teach him religion. Let 
him, however, search for a heartfelt sense of sin, for a 
humiliating burden of guilt, let him probe for a sensitive 
and restraining conscience, a truthful character, an un- 
selfish and beneficent life, and he will search and probe 
in vain. 

These and others of a similar nature are the real 
difficulties and discouragements which enter into mis- 
sionary work in India. They are not of a physical but 
of a spiritual nature. Nor are they such as we should 
shrink from. We ought rather to welcome them as 
foemen worthy of our steel. What merit, what glory, 
what honor to its divine Founder if Christianity had won 
India by a litde mortification of the flesh on the part of 
its teachers ? None ! The Hindu devotees themselves 
excel all Christendom in mortification of the body. For 
physical endurance of hardships Protestantism claims 
no merit, and the world Is never to be brought to Christ 
through It ; but if the gospel can overcome these vasdy 
greater, these spiritual difficulties, if It can restore not 
only the heart degraded by sin but also the intellect 
distorted by false systems of philosophy which have 
held in their subtle grasp and swayed for thousands of 



368 EVERY-DA Y LIFE IN INDIA. 

years the thought of millions of fellow human beings — 
if the gospel can overcome these obstacles, it wins a 
triumph worthy of its claims, a triumph which must be 
acknowledged by individuals and by nations. This the 
gospel of Christ is doing to-day in India, and is doing 
it with a rapidity never before witnessed in the history 
of moral and religious reformations in any age or coun- 
try. Within the last five years upwards of eighty 
thousand persons have been received into the Christian 
church in India. 

Will India ever become a Christian country ? As- 
suredly so. We are not prepared to say that the 
millennium will dawn in India before it does in Europe 
and America. We have no more reason to hope that 
every man, woman, and child in India will become a 
devoted follower of Christ than we have to hope for 
such a blessed consummation in lands already Chris- 
tianized ; but in the sense that America is to-day a 
Christian country, will India also be such before another 
century will have passed away. Long before that time 
Christ will have sincere followers and teachers in every 
Hindu village — epistles known and read of all men; 
and his gospel will be " a savor of life unto life or of 
death unto death" throughout the length and breadth 
of India as it is to-day throughout America and 
Europe. 



CASTE AND CONVERTS, 369 



XIx. CASTE AKD CONVERTS. 

There is a class of people — noisy, rather than 
large — ^who seem to find especial delight in depreci- 
ating missionary work. Without any very sacred re- 
gard for the truth, they make statements to suit the 
conclusions which they wish to draw ; and among such 
statements a favorite one is, that Hindu converts are 
all drawn from the out-caste classes and have changed 
their religion from temporal motives. 

We give here the official statement of the Madras 
Census Report for 1871 — the last one published — as 
showing the comparative number of converts from the 
various castes in Southern India. 

TABLE SHOWING THE CASTE ORIGIN OF NATIVE CHRISTIANS. 

Brahmans 3,658 

Kshatriyas 4,535 

Vaisyas -- 3,444 

Cultivators 35,742 

Shepherds 2,462 

Artisans 5,2x6 

Weavers 5,027 

Agricultural laborers 90,852 

Shamars 26,724 

Mixed castes 6,861 

Fishermen I4,459 

Other Hindus • 49,389 

Pariahs 131,367 

This shows simply what the missionaries have al- 
ways affirmed and claimed : namely, that while the ma- 



370 E VER y-DA Y LIFE IN INDIA, 

jorlty of converts have come from the lower castes, all, 
from the Brahmans down, are represented in the Chris- 
tian church in India. 

It being granted, then, as a fact that the accessions 
to Christianity have been largely from the ranks of the 
lower castes, though not exclusively so, as is sometimes 
asserted, what view are we to take of the matter ? Are 
we to regard it as a sign unfavorable to the character of 
Christianity, or to the nature of the missionary work 
done ? We incline to a different view of the matter. 

As a preliminary thought, it is well enough for us 
to bear in mind that we cannot reasonably expect a 
sudden and universal change on the part of the people 
of India from their old idolatrous systems to the Chris- 
tian religion. We cannot expect this when we consider 
the people themselves, and we cannot expect it when 
we consider the ways in which God has built up his 
church in the past. 

We are impatient, and God's ways seem slow in our 
eyes. If we had lived in the olden days, we should 
have pronounced it a sheer waste of time to keep the 
children of Israel in bondage for hundreds of years, and 
how we should have fretted over the weary waiting from 
Samuel to Simeon ! How we should have discoursed 
learnedly on the failure of prophecy, and on the effete- 
ness of the Jewish religion ! No doubt it is well that 
we were not born before our time. 

Viewed in connection with the history of the church 
thus far, our impatience with the present progress of the 
gospel in India and other heathen countries is most un- 



CASTE AND CONVERTS, 371 

reasonable. We have heard something of Christian 
nations being born in a day, and the idea clings to us 
that we ought to see something of the kind with regard 
to India. Except God set aside the means which he has 
hitherto employed in all ages to build up his church, 
and by a stupendous miracle work so wondrous a 
change, we need look for no such sudden and universal 
transformation. 

In the gospel the church is spoken of under the 
similitude of a house which is gradually being built ; 
of a tree which grows steadily and slowly from a very 
small seed; of leaven which quietly but effectually 
spreads its influence until the whole lump is leavened. 
We ought not to look, therefore, for a sudden and gen- 
eral turning from heathenism to Christianity, but rather 
for a steady, gradual advance of the gospel. 

Moreover, owing to the institution of caste in India, 
which so widely separates the different classes of the 
community, we ought to expect Christianity to advance 
more rapidly in the line of one or more of the various 
castes, than among all classes simultaneously. 

This being admitted, the question arises, which were 
preferable, that the higher castes should come first, or 
that the lower castes should come first ? 

We present several evident reasons why it seems 
better for the cause of the church herself that the low- 
caste people should accept the gospel first and the higher 
castes afterwards. 

I. Great differences exist between the various grades 
of society. These differences are not of a social char- 



372 EVERY-DA Y LIFE IN INDIA. 

acter only, but also of a supposed religious character, 
being inherent in birth and blood, and therefore inerad- 
icable by education and culture. 

In no other country in the world is there so little 
sympathy and so little intercourse between the two ex- 
tremes of society. Wherever Christianity has found its 
way, its influence has been to elevate its adherents intel- 
lectually, as well as morally. In India it has now, and is 
destined to have in a yet greater degree, the same effect. 

If, then, the higher castes, who are already far re- 
moved in intelligence above the lower castes, had been 
the first to embrace Christianity and benefit by it, the 
vast gulf between the two extremes of society would 
have been increased, instead of lessened. If, however, 
as is actually the case, the lower castes are benefited, 
elevated socially, morally, and intellectually, by the 
Christian religion, this vast difference is by so much 
decreased. That such an effect is really being pro* 
duced, we have abundant evidence in the fact that na- 
tive Christian pastors and teachers who have come from 
the lower castes are admitted on terms of social equality 
by many liberal-minded persons of the higher castes. 

2. If the gospel had made such a manifest improve- 
ment in the condition of the higher castes as it is ma- 
king among the lower castes, the change would have 
counted for nothing in the eyes of the lower castes. 
We mean, it would have been no evidence to them of 
any superior or divine quality in the gospel itself They 
have" from time immemorial been taught to consider 
themselves of ho value as human beings, beyond hope 



CASTE AND CONVERTS, 375 

here and hereafter, until every aspiration beyond their 
daily needs has been crushed out. However great a 
change for the better the gospel might have made 
among the high -caste people, the lower castes would 
have looked upon it as something natural and to be 
expected, while they would not have aspired to the 
same good for themselves. If they had given it a 
thought at all, which is doubtful, it would have been 
this : " Oh, yes, it is all very well for the Brahmans, 
but it is nothing to us." Thus one of the most tangi- 
ble evidences of the truth of Christianity, as a divine 
institution, would have been lost upon the mass of the 
people. As it is, the ennobling influence of the gospel 
first shows itself upon the lower castes, and in doing so 
it cannot fail to be recognized by all. 

3. Caste is in direct opposition to the spirit of the 
gospel. It can never be tolerated in the church of 
Christ. If it cannot be tolerated in the church, the only 
safe course is not to admit it, but to make the renunci- 
ation of caste a requisite for admission into the church. 

It will be seen at once that if the higher castes had 
become Christians first, the renunciation of caste could 
never have been made a practical test of admission. 
There would have been no lower castes for them to as- 
sociate with within the church ; and as for the lower 
castes, it would simply have flattered their vanity to be 
afterwards admitted into a body which at once raised 
them apparently to the standard of the higher castes. 
Within the church the subsequent admission of the 

lower castes could not fail to bring endless strife and 
42 



37^ EVERY'DAY^ LIFE IN INDIA. 

confusion. We have seen examples of this kind where 
Roman-catholic missionaries had first received high- 
caste members — allowing them to bring with them all 
their caste distinctions — and afterwards received low- 
caste converts. The strife was something fearful, and 
was compromised only by the priests dispensing with 
the "assembling together" of the saints, and letting 
each party or individual come to church at whatever 
hour of the day was most convenient. When the lower 
castes are the first to enter the church, all subsequent 
comers are of course put to the wholesome test of re- 
nouncing caste before professing themselves Christians. 

4. If the higher castes had been the first to espouse 
Christianity, it would have given the finest opportunity 
to unprincipled men among the Brahmans to continue 
their tyrannical priesthood under the guise of the Chris- 
tian religion. Christianity in all countries is shaped in 
its external administration to a great extent by sur- 
rounding circumstances and customs, and we can well 
see how it might, under a Brahmanical priesthood, be- 
come little more than a colored Brahmanism. 

If the first caste to become Christians had been the 
Brahmans, as a matter of course the teachers for them 
and for all other classes would have come from among 
them, and such a course would have been more dam- 
aging to the yoiing Christian church in India than was 
even the plague of Gnosticism in the early church. 

Let these few thoughts suffice for at least a silver 
lining to this cloud which has so long been considered 
very dark, and only dark. 



• BIBLE SCENES IN INDIA . 377 



XLI. BIBLE SCEKES IN IHDIA. 

In our dally life in India we notice many customs 
which call to mind words and passages in the Bible. 
This seems but natural when we remember that the 
Bible was written in the East, and that on account of 
the stationary character of Eastern people, there is but 
little change in their customs even in thousands of 
years. It is probable, too, that at the time the Bible 
was written there was considerable communication be- 
tween Egypt, Syria, and India, and that these countries 
had many customs in common. 

There are even many points of resemblance between 
the religion of the Hindus and that of the ancient Jews. 
Turning to Bible language, we are frequently reminded 
of passages like these : 

"TAKE UP THY BED AND WALK." Mark 2:11, 12. . 

In the Bible we read a number of times of persons 
taking up their beds and walking, as if their beds had 
been something which they could easily carry from 
place to place. 

Our idea of a bed includes bedstead, mattress, pil- 
lows, blankets, etc., altogether more than one man could 
well carry ; but in Eastern countries beds are much more 
simple. Going along the bazaars or principal streets in 
an Indian town, we may see at any hour of the day peo- 
ple who have taken up their beds and are walking — • 



378 E VER Y-DA Y LIFE IN INDIA, 

walking along as unconcernedly as you would with an 
umbrella under your arm. These "beds" consist sim- 
ply of a light palm-leaf mat, about six. feet long and half 
as wide, or a rough blanket, or it may be the skin of 
some wild animal. 

Especially travellers, pilgrims, beggars, etc., carry 
such beds along with them, and they continually remind 
one of the Bible references. 

In their houses, those who can afford it use low rope 
cots, but these are also without " bedding," such as mat- 
tresses, pillows, etc. Some of the more enterprising 
and wealthy Hindus are beginning to introduce En- 
glish-style bedsteads ; still there is no danger that these 
will soon replace the old Eastern style of beds to which 
we have just referred. 

"EMPTY, SWEPT, AND GARNISHED." 

These words occur in Matt. 12 : 44, and refer to a 
house prepared to receive a guest. Were we to refer 
to a house in Europe or America which had been pre- 
pared to receive a guest, we should say " it was com- 
fortably furnished, properly heated, well lighted," etc. ; 
but here in India we could find no words more appro- 
priate than " empty, swept, and garnished." 

The houses here generally consist of but a single 
room. Into this room are crowded not only men, wom- 
en, children, pots, cots, looms, spinning-wheels, and 
other working implements, but also cows, buffaloes, 
dogs, and fowls. This, I say, is the case ordinarily with 
the houses of the poorer and middle-class people ; but 



BIBLE SCENES IN INDIA. 379 

if a guest is expected, as, for example, should the mis- 
sionary come to see a Christian family, that little room 
will soon present another appearance. 

First of all, it is emptied. Children, catde, fowls, 
cots, pots, and working utensils are all removed, and 
the house is completely emptied, or as nearly so as 
possible. 

Next comes the sweeping. With a rude wisp made 
of palm-leaf or of grass, every corner, the inside walls 
and floor are nicely swept. Water is sprinkled over 
the floor and walls, and the operation is repeated until 
the inside of the house seems perfectly clean. 

Then comes the garnishing. A large space around 
the outside of the door having also been swept and 
sprinkled, the women take powdered lime in their 
hands, and with great skill drop it gently from the back 
of the hand between their fingers, thus making straight 
white lines, curves, circles, etc., at pleasure, until the 
ground around the doorway, inside and outside, pre- 
sents a very pictured appearance. But this is not all. 
The walls of the house are painted in upright, alter- 
nate stripes of red and white. Each stripe is from eight 
inches to a foot wide, and extends from the roof to the 
ground. The paints most frequently used are simply a 
cheap red earth and lime-water, or common "white- 
wash." 

A house thus emptied, swept, and garnished, if it 
has a good roof, is not a bad place to be in on a hot 
day. Having thick mud walls and no windows, it is far 
cooler than a tent. 



386 E VER Y-DA Y LIFE IN INDIA. 

"SET A HEDGE ABOUT, . . . AND BUILT A TOWER" IN 
THE MIDST OF THE VINEYARD. Mark 12:1. 

In travelling about the country we are continually 
reminded of these words. 

On account of the scarcity of wood, stones, and iron, 
there are no fences around the fields in India such as 
you see in America. 

The only kind of fences here are hedges — living, 
growing hedges of various kinds of plants, such as cac- 
tus, aloe, and bamboo. As these hedges are often in- 
complete and insecure, and as many fields are altogether 
without fences of any sort, it becomes necessary to have 
guards or watchers, and therefore the farmers build 
small towers, watch-towers, in the midst of their fields. 
When the crops are ripening, watchers sit on these 
towers day and night, occasionaliy calling out with a 
shrill cry, to frighten away straying cattle, kites, crows, 
parrots, and sneak-thieves of the human kind. 

There is something pleasant and cheering in the 
tones of these watchers, as you hear them calling -out in 
field after field as you travel through the country near 
harvest-time ; and one of the most melancholy sights 
during the late famine, when the earth refused to give 
her increase for a few successive years, was the silent 
desolation and gradual decay of these watch-towers in 
the midst of the fields. 

"THE SHADOW OF A GREAT ROCK IN A WEARY 
LAND." ISA. 32 : 2. 

By a weary land, I suppose the ancient writer meant 
a land where people become weary readily on account 



. BIBLE SCENES IN INDIA, 381 

of the excessive heat. In this sense India, during a part 
of the year, is emphatically a weary land, and at this 
time the shadow of a great rock is about the only shade 
that is dense enough to be refreshing or sheltering. 

In temperate climates, the full force of this figure 
can scarcely be appreciated. There one is not likely 
to notice a great difference between the shade of a bush 
or a tree and that produced by a rock. Here this dif- 
ference is very marked ; the rays of the sun are so fierce 
that the shade of a tree gives but little, shelter. Besides, 
the glare of reflected hght under a tree is almost as 
painful to the eyes and as injurious to the head as di- 
rect rays. Europeans, therefore, very seldom resort to 
the shade of trees as a protection from the sun. The 
shadow of a rock, especially a great rock, is, however, 
very refreshing, and forms a secure shelter from the 
direct rays, while it also most probably breaks off the 
reflected glare from one or more sides. 

COMPELLING PEOPLE TO DO CERTAIN KINDS OF 
WORK. 

We read in Luke 23 : 26, that as they led Jesus 
away to be crucified, " they laid hold upon one Simon, 
a Cyrenian, coming out of the country, and on him they 
laid the cross, that he might bear it after Jesus." 

In America such an act of compulsion would seem 
very unnatural, and probably no one passing along the 
road on his own business would consent to be impressed 
into the service of others. He would consider such 
an act as an interference with his personal liberty ; and 



382 E VERY-DA Y LIFE IN INDIA, 

while he might be willing' to assist those in need of help, 
as a matter of accommodation, he would scarcely con- 
sent to be " compelled." 

Such is not the case here. Compelling people to 
work is of daily occurrence. Should a traveller be pass- 
ing through a town and want a change of carts, palen- 
keen-bearers, or burden-carriers, he writes a note to 
the nearest government official, who sends out a peon 
and impresses for service the first carts, bearers, or coo- 
lies he may meet. We have frequently found cart-dri- 
vers, many miles away from their homes, who had been 
taken out of their course and away from their work, 
altogether without their own consent. It is a practice 
which ought scarcely to be encouraged, and when it is 
known that one is willing to pay for the service required, 
it can generally be obtained without resorting to gov- 
ernment officials and compulsion. There are, however, 
exceptions, and but for this custom, which reminds one 
of the Scripture passage quoted, Europeans would 
sometimes be put to great inconvenience. 

' SITTING AT THE FEET OF TEACHERS. 

Paul, speaking to the Jews in Jerusalem (Acts 22 : 3), 
says he was brought up "at the feet of Gamaliel." 

In an article written by a Hindu, which I have just 
read, the following expression is used : " The rich and 
the great will never consent to sit at their feet and re- 
ceive knowledge from their lips " (having reference to 
low-caste teachers). 

In looking into a Hindu schoolroom, this expres- 



BIBLE SCENES IN INDIA, 383 

sion, " sitting at the feet of teachers," is forcibly called 
to our minds. The only chair or stool in such a room 
is occupied by the teacher. The pupils all sit around 
him on the earthen floor, and thus literally are sitting at 
his feet. 

For any boy to bring a stool from home and sit on 
it in school in the presence of the teacher, would be 
considered very disrespectful, and so careful are Hindus 
to show proper respect to their superiors in rank or sta- 
tion, that under no circumstances would one of their 
boys do such an unbecoming act. 

FALLING DOWN AT THE FEET OF OTHERS. 

In Luke 8 : 41, it is said that when Jairus came to 
meet Jesus, he fell down at his feet and besought him 
that he would come unto his house. Cornelius also fell 
down at the feet of Peter. 

Here we see daily examples of this custom, and it is 
in cases like those mentioned above that it takes place. 
It is not at All unusual for persons, even persons of con- 
siderable respectability, to throw themselves full length 
on the ground at the feet of one from whom they are 
asking some great favor. With beggars it is a very 
common practice. 

POSSESSED WITH DEVILS. 

Throughout the East the notion seems to be com- 
mon that people become possessed with devils, and that 
by certain processes these devils may be cast out. It is 
very difficult to explain all the circumstances connected 
43 



384 EVERY'DA Y LIFE IN INDIA. 

with such an event as we see it here, and the fact that 
these cases remind us of the ones mentioned in the 
Bible makes the subject all the more interesting. 

The " casting out of a devil " is a performance which 
occurs now and then in an Indian village, but not very 
frequently. When it does occur, it is an event of so 
much importance that it absorbs the attention of the 
whole neighborhood; and the spectators, whether old 
or young, eagerly relate the affair in all its details years 
afterwards. Persons who are said to be possessed with 
devils scream violently, run to and fro, utter oracular 
sayings, and are frequently subject to convulsions and 
contortions of the body. 

This may go on for several days in succession, the 
patient meanwhile refusing to eat, drink, or sleep. Steps 
are now taken to drive out the evil spirit. A *' doctor'' 
is called in, who, as is usual with his class, first applies 
mild, immaterial remedies, in the shape of incantations, 
or what is known in America as " powwowing." Should 
he not succeed in dislodging the demon by this process, 
he then gives the patient a drink which contains, among 
other things, cow-manure. 

If the evil spirit still remains, the " possessed " per- 
son is then thoroughly whipped — beaten with a rattan, 
a bamboo stick, an old shoe, or whatever may chance 
to be at hand. Meanwhile, if the spirit seems inexora- 
ble, a meal of boiled rice, brown sugar, etc., is prepared 
by which to allure him away. 

As soon as he shows any signs of yielding his hold 
upon the person, the prepared meal is quickly carried 



BIBLE SCENES IN INDIA. 385 

in a large pot to some neighboring hill, a grove, or 
some other secluded place. The spirit is supposed to 
follow and there feast upon the meal. As demons, how- 
ever, eat only in spirit, the meal is afterwards appropri- 
ated by the exorcist. As long as the demon remains 
in the person, the beating is ignored, however severe it 
may be, nor does the patient profess to know anything 
of what has taken place. Sometimes the ceremony of 
casting out devils is attended with hideous noises on all 
sorts of musical instruments. 

THRESHING. 

" Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that 
treadeth out the corn," i Cor. 9 : 9, and the figure used 
in the gospels, " Whose fan is in his hand, and he will 
thoroughly purge his floor, and will gather the wheat 
into his garner," Luke 3: 17, are both suggested by the 
mode of threshing grain common here. A dry, eleva- 
ted, level plot of ground is selected as the "floor.'* 
Generally the heads of grain only are subject to thresh- 
ing — these having been broken ofl" the stock. These 
are then spread in a thick layer upon the floor, and 
oxen are used to tread out the corn, i. e., the grain. I 
have often noticed the oxen on these occasions, but in- 
variably found them muzzled by means of a little basket 
tied over the mouth. 

The heads having been well threshed in this way, 
the process of separating the chafl" from the grain be- 
gins. I have never seen any large fanning mills in 
India such as you see in America. While one person 



386 EVERY-DA Y LIFE IN INDIA. 

lifts up into the air, as high as he can reach, a basket or 
shovelful of grain and chaff, and then drops it so that 
it may fall to the ground, a second person, with a large 
fan in his hand, sets a current of air in motion in the 
direction of the grain. This air, in passing through the 
falling grain and chaff, carries away the latter, while the 
former falls to the ground. The operation has to be 
repeated several times before the floor is thoroughly 
purged. In case a strong wind blows, the fan may be 
dispensed with. At such times the persons pouring the 
grain and chaff generally stand on a high stool, so as 
to admit of a longer falling distance. 

VAIN REPETITIONS. 

"When ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the 
heathen do," Matt. 6 ; 7 ; and, " When ye fast, be not as 
the hypocrites, of a sad countenance, for they disfigure 
their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast," 
ver. 16. 

In passing along the streets of a town, you fre- 
quently see men with long strings of beads about their 
necks, and as you come near to them you hear them 
muttering the name of some god, as ** Rama, Rama, 
Rama," or it may be a prayer of a few words. Mean- 
while they are passing the beads quietly through their 
fingers. The Sanskrit name of these bead strings 
means literally " muttering chaplet," which seems much 
more appropriate than "rosary," the name given to 
them in European countries. By means of these beads 
the wearer can ascertain the number of times he has 



BIBLE SCENES IN INDIA. 387 

said the name of his god or any other prayer. The 
merit is supposed to be in proportion to the number. 
Some also make an effort to call upon their gods by as 
many different names as possible, and it is said that for 
Vishnu there are one thousand, and for Siva one thou- 
sand and eight names. Some Mohammedans also wear 
"muttering chaplets." These are generally made of 
one hundred date stones. The fakirs and other de- 
votees, who go about the country covered more exten- 
sively with ashes and long uncombed hair than with 
decent clothing, are disreputable hypocrites. Hindus 
themselves have no faith in their holiness, and they are 
preeminently the characters who disfigure themselves 
that they may appear unto men to fast. 

GIRDING THE LOINS. 

This figure is extensively used in both the Old and 
New Testaments to denote preparation and readiness 
for active work. Having the loins girded also implies 
additional strength and endurance. 

In India girding the loins is a common custom 
among active workmen, and the full beauty of the Bible 
figures is thus brought to view. A palenkeen bearer, 
before starting on a journey, invariably takes his loose 
"upper cloth," and, having folded it into a narrow 
strip about eight inches wide, ties it securely about 
his loins. Other burden-bearers do the same. Men 
who run long distances, as public or private letter- 
carriers, and even ordinary travellers who have a long 
walk before them, tighdy gird their loins. So do 



388 E VER Y-DA Y LIFE IN INDIA . 

also servants and other workmen occasionally, when 
specially preparing for some active work. The support 
afforded by the operation is very great indeed, and the 
practice is one which deserves to be copied more ex- 
tensively in western countries. 

WOMEN AT THE WELL. 
From the Bible references it appears that drawing 
water and carrying it away on the head or shoulders in 
stone or earthen pots was especially the work of the 
women. So it is also in India. Early in the morning, 
large companies of women may be seen going to, com- 
ing from, and gathering around the wells. Now and 
then a few men may be seen among them, but as a rule 
the water-carriers are women, and as they file away 
with their large brown earthen pots, we cannot but 
think of such scenes as Moses' meeting with the young 
woman who afterwards became his wife, Saul's inquiry 
about the seer, of the maidens who came to draw water, 
and the woman of Samaria at the well. 

"MAKING A TINKLING WITH THEIR FEET." 
In the third chapter of Isaiah we have some intima- 
tions of the fashions among the " daughters of Zion " 
more than two thousand years ago. From the profu- 
sion of ornaments mentioned there, it appears that the 
fair Jewesses of those days were not far behind th^ fair 
Christians of our time in devising ways and means of 
adorning the body. It does not seem, however, that 
their efforts and ingenuity in this direction were partic- 



BIBLE SCENES IN INDIA. 391 

ularly pleasing to God, for he threatens to " take away 
the bravery of their tinkling ornaments, their chains, 
bracelets, mufflers," etc. 

Again, the Apostle Peter exhorts the Christian wo- 
men to seek not so much after outward adornment as 
after the " ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which 
is in the sight of God of great price." 

Among the Jewish ornaments were the feet-jewels. 
This is a kind of jewelry not worn by European and 
American ladies — probably not for any want of disposi- 
tion on their part, so much as on account of the imprac- 
ticability of wearing it in connection with our style of 
foot covering. In India, however, feet-jewelry is com- 
mon, and its " tinkling " cannot fail to remind one of 
the words of Scripture we have above quoted. The 
ornament which makes the noise consists of a circular, 
or rather an elliptical wire, which encircles the foot 
above the ankle, and to which are attached a number 
of small closed bells — perhaps fifteen or twenty — and 
as the foot strikes the ground, these make a clattering 
noise. One being attached to each foot, a monotonous 
tramp, tramp, tramp is sent out in all directions as a 
full-jewelled woman passes by. These tinkling feet- 
jewels are worn principally by high-caste women when 
in "full dress," and by dancing girls. 

This latter class wear them in great profusion, and 
are very skilful in adapting their sound to the music 
which may be played while they perform what is called 
dancing in this country. Others — even cooly women — 
often wear rings without bells about the ankles, and 



392 E VER Y-DA Y LIFE IN INDIA . 

** rings on their toes," as many as they can find room 
for. 

GIVING PRESENTS WHEN PAYING A VISIT. 

When the Queen of Sheba came to visit Solomon, 
she brought for him "very much gold and precious 
stones, and of spices very great store," i Kings lo: 2, 10, 
and Solomon gave her many presents in return. 

Giving presents when paying a visit, and even on 
other occasions as a mark of friendship, is an Oriental 
custom which extends from the highest prince down to 
the poorest cooly. Queen Victoria has to be continu- 
ally sending costly presents to her dependent Indian 
Princes in acknowledgment of similar tokens of friend- 
ship received from them. Not long ago the Viceroy 
of India sent the rather cumbersome present of seven 
elephants to the Khedive of Egypt. Following the 
custom which is thus extravagantly carried out by 
princes, the poor cooly who comes to you for a favor, 
or to pay his respects to you, will bring you an orange, 
or a bit of sweetmeat. Especially a man who is a little 
elevated in the social scale, as a village or other govern- 
ment official, will never think of visiting you without 
bringing a small present of fruit, cakes, or sweetmeat. 
These presents are of no practical value to you, and 
cost him but little. Their object is to show and culti- 
vate friendship, and they remind us of the stability of 
Eastern customs; for not only in connection with the 
Queen of Sheba, but in many other places in the Bible, 
we find traces of the same custom many centuries 
ago. 



BIBLE SCENES IN INDIA, 393 

SERVANTS UPON HORSES. 

The Preacher (10:7) tells us, by way of illustration, 
that he has seen "servants upon horses, and princes 
walking as servants upon the earth." In America this 
illustration loses its force, for there you may any day 
see servants on horses, and great men — if not actual, 
tided princes — walking upon the earth. In the East, 
and especially in some parts of India, you may live 
from youth to old age without seeing either. Even 
horse-keepers, and much less other servants, are never 
seen on horses. A horse-keeper may run after you as 
you ride along at the rate of five or six miles an hour 
for twenty miles, and then, as often happens, when you 
go on by some other conveyance, and send the horse 
back to the place from which you started, the horse- 
keeper leads the animal, but never rides him. 

The same is true in case a servant brings a horse to 
meet you, or when he has to take the animal out for 
exercise, as is necessary in this country. Though a 
Hindu might be a horse-keeper all his days, it is not 
probable that it would ever enter his head to put him- 
self astride the animal after whose wants he looks, and 
whose meal of grain he too often clandestinely shares. 
It is not the custom, and that is law enough for him. 

As for princes or other natives of high social stand- 
ing "walking upon the earth," this sight is almost as 
rare as servants on horses. Walking is considered 
infra dignitatem, and a "respectable" man will ride a 
scrubby, half-starved pony, not any heavier than him- 
self; he will hang on to a ridiculous, awkward and 
44 



394 EVERY'DA Y LIFE IN INDIA. 

uncomfortable bullock-cart ; he will be carried in or on 
anything from a palenkeen down to a board, by poor 
coolies, but walk he will not. Surely the Preacher 
gave a striking illustration of things out of place, 
according to Oriental notions, when he spoke of ser- 
vants on horses and princes walking upon the earth. 



APPENDIX. 395 



APPENDIX 



I. ROUTES TO IKDIA, OUTFITS, ETC. 

For the present, the quickest and at the same time 
the cheapest route to India, for Americans, is by way 
of Europe. The westward route is attended with great 
expense, many changes and possible delays between 
China and the Indian ports. However, these obstacles 
are not insurmountable, and if there be any strong rea- 
son for selecting this route, aside from speed and the 
conveniences of travel, it may be taken and made to 
yield much interest and information. 

Since the opening of the Suez Canal, the eastward 
route is rendered comparatively easy, and it may be 
made within six weeks, if the traveller is pressed for 
time. It is better, however, to allow at least three 
months for the journey, so as to be able to take a rest 
in London, and to have a glimpse of Europe on the 
way. Having crossed the Atlantic, the India-bound 
traveller has a choice of steamers and ports. From 
London he can sail almost any day of the week for 
India. If he is in search of the most fashionable and 
expensive steamers, he wends his v/ay to Southampton 



396 E VER Y-DA Y LIFE IN INDIA . 

and embarks on a " P. & O.," which means, a steamer 
of the "Peninsular and Oriental" hne. The London 
steamers are cheaper than these, and some of them 
equally comfortable. 

The sea-voyage may be shortened by embarking 
at Marseilles, Trieste, Naples, Brindisi, or some other 
Mediterranean port. This route costs but little more, 
while it affords the traveller an opportunity of passing 
through Paris and over the Continent. 

At the other end of the journey the sea-voyage may 
likewise be shortened by landing at Bombay and pro- 
ceeding thence by railroad, instead of going by steamer 
around to Madras or Calcutta. This is Hkely to entail 
expense and inconvenience, especially if there be much 
baggage. In case any short sea-voyage is decided 
upon, all heavy baggage ought to be sent direct from 
London or Liverpool to the Indian port nearest your 
destination. The expense is trifling, and the trouble 
saved incalculable. 

In making up packages of goods either for the jour- 
ney or for use in India, small cases are to be preferred 
to large ones. All ought to be tin-lined, securely closed, 
and legibly marked, not with labels, which may be 
knocked or washed off, but wztA letters printed on the 
cases. 

WHAT SHALL I TAKE WITH ME TO INDIA? 
This question is sure to suggest itself to missiona- 
ries and others who look forward to a residence in that 
country. If asked what things it is necessary to take 



APPENDIX. * 397 

along for use in India, we may answer that it is not ab- 
solutely necessary to take anything. 

The larger cities of India can supply everything 
needed by European residents, but it does not follow, 
therefore, that it is not advisable to take some things 
with you from home. 

Indian prices for European goods are very high, 
and the articles to be obtained are too often inferior in 
quality. The Indian merchants carry on their business 
under many disadvantages. It is not necessary for us 
to recount them here, but the European resident will 
soon learn to appreciate them, and to understand why 
Indian prices of imported goods are necessarily very 
high. 

It is advisable therefore to take along to India a 
supply of certain articles, and these are not always what 
one would suppose, a priori, would be needed. 

We have known people who imagined going to 
India meant going into a rude wilderness, where they 
would never more have need 9f a " best suit," or any 
other accessory of civilized life. 

It may, therefore, not be out of place to say that the 
European resident in India needs to be provided with 
evening dress -suits of the best quality, and these are 
advantageously brought from home. The material 
ought not to be heavy, but otherwise there is no distinc- 
tion between the dress required for an Indian station- 
dinner and a full-dress party in London or New York. 

Another matter worth mentioning is, that flannels, 
above all ot;her fabrics, are useful in India. The chan- 



398 EVERY-DA Y LIFE IN INDIA. 

ges In temperature are very sudden, and the wearing of 
flannel next the skin is a necessity. A gruff Indian 
physician is reputed to have said that he " would not 
throw good medicine away upon any fool who would 
not wear flannel." 

In India, flannels are dear, or if cheap, they are old 
and damaged in proportion. A good supply ought to 
be brought along. Thin white for under-wear, and 
heavy white for morning suits, will be found service- 
able. Light tweeds, for gentlemen's wear, and lawns, 
linens, and other light material, for ladies' dresses, will 
be found a good investment. A few pairs of woollen 
blankets will repay their cost in any part of India. 

A good supply of shoes will not come amiss. Im- 
ported shoes are very dear, and country-made ones are 
very poor. 

Stockings, handkerchiefs, linen collars, cuffs, under- 
clothing of all descriptions, table-linen, sheets, and tow- 
els, are needed in abundance, and are rapidly torn to 
pieces by the native washermen. If a good supply of 
material is brought, these articles can be made up here 
with the aid of native tailors very cheaply. 

Except to bring woollen blankets, it is not necessary 
to trouble about bedding. American drill, cotton, and 
everything else needed to make mattresses, pillows, etc., 
are found at all Indian stations, and are soon put to- 
gether by the native tailors. 

Several pieces of fine bleached muslin will come 
into advantageous use in almost any Indian house- 
hold. 



APPENDIX. 399 

A stock of American canned fruits, vegetables, and 
meats, will be found very agreeable during the new- 
comer's early stay in India. He has to become used, 
not only to a new climate, but to new food, and of the 
table supply of the ordinary Indian station it would not 
be difficult to give too favorable an account. Gradu- 
ally we accommodate ourselves to the situation, but too 
sudden a transition tends in some people to bring on a 
disease known as homesickness. 

If one should not too strongly object to much pack- 
ing and many boxes, we should say he would not go 
wrong in bringing from home kerosene-lamps, a din- 
ner-set, goblets, tumblers, etc. They must of course 
be well packed, but if this be done they will be found 
cheaper and much more satisfactory than those for sale 
in India, Cutlery and plated silverware ought by all 
means to be brought along. Solid silverware ought 
never to be put into the hands of Indian serv^ants; 
their moral character is not equal to the situation. 
Persons who expect to be permanently located at one 
place will find it a good investment to bring a cooking- 
stove with all its appliances. It ought to be taken apart 
and packed in sawdust. 

A sewing-machine and a cabinet organ are as much 
needed in an Indian as in an American home. So 
are chromos, brackets, and other articles of household 
ornament, and they all ought to be brought along. 
Frames for chromos and other pictures are not easily 
obtained here at moderate prices, and ought likewise 
to be brought along. Expensive and frail household 



400 E VER Y-DA Y LIFE IN INDIA. 

ornaments ought not to be brought. They are in dan- 
ger of being spoiled by servants and of being destroyed 
by insects. 

But, more than anything else, does the European 
need to bring to India a good constitution, a cheerful 
disposition, moderate habits, sympathy for his fellow- 
men, of whatever country, creed, or color, faith in him- 
self, love for his work, and trust in God. 



GLOSSARY OF FOREIGN TERMS. 401 



GLOSSARY OF FOREIGN TERMS USED. 

Anna : a silver coin worth one-sixteenth of a rupee, or about 

three cents. 
Ayah : a nurse-maid. 
Bandy : a cart or carriage. 
Bangles: armlets. 
Bazaar : the market or market-place. 
Bungalow: a dwellinghouse. The term is applied to the 

large, airy houses occupied generally by European resi- 
dents, but not to native huts. 
Chuckler: oiTe belonging to the shoemaker caste. 
Chunam: lime. 

Compound : a yard or enclosure about a house. 
Congee : gruel made of rice or other grain. 
CooLY : a laborer ; also applied to his visages, as, " His cooly 

is three annas a day." 
Curry: a savory dish composed of meat or vegetables, 

onions, salt, pepper, cocoanut, ghee, etc., and to be eaten 

with rice or other boiled grain. 
Cuscus : a kind of fragrant roots. 
CUTCHERY : an office or court. 

Dub : a piece of money equal to four pice or one cent. 
Durbar : a court where a levee is held. 
Fakir: properly a Mohammedan devotee or beggar; the 

word is also used for Hindu devotees or sanyasis. 
Ghee : clarified butter. 
GoDOWN : a warehouse or storeroom. 
Gomaster : an agent or clerk. 
Griffin: a descriptive title of a foreigner during his first 

year in India. 
Jungle : a forest or thicket. 
45 



402 E VER Y-DA Y LIFE IN INDIA . 

KOMITIES : native merchants. 

KuRNAM : the village clerk. 

Madigar : one belonging to the shoemaker caste. 

Mala : one belonging to the weaver caste. 

Mantram : a charm or incantation. 

Mela : a festival. 

MoFUSSiL : rural districts. 

Motart : an inferior village official. 

Munsif: the village headman. 

Nautch : a peculiar Indian dance. 

Paddy : rice in the husk. 

Peon: a footman, constable. 

PiALS : small mounds of earth, often used as seats. 

Pice: a copper "coin of the value of one-twelfth of an anna, 

or one-fourth of a cent. 
PuNCHYAT : a council of five. 
Pundit : a learned man. 

Punkah : a large fan suspended from the ceiling. 
Rajah : a native prince or king. 
Rupee : a silver coin of the value of half a dollar. 
Ryot : a tenant or farmer. 
Sanyasi : a Hindu devotee. 
Shaster : a treatise on Hindu sacred laws. 
Tahsildar : a revenue officer, inferior to subcollector. 
Tali : the marriage badge. 
Tamasha : display, pomp, etc. 
Tank : a pond or lake. 
Tappal: post for letters, or banghy. 
Tattie : a mat. 

Tonjon : a travelling conveyance. 
Vedas : the Hindu sacred books. 
Vettymen : menial village servants. 
Zemindar : a land-holder. 



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